The Worldwide Mesh Technology Centre
This was it, 15th May, the big day: Johnson & Johnson's Worldwide Mesh Technology Centre was officially opening in Norderstedt near Hamburg, Germany.
‘This is a milestone in our company history,’ said Gary J Pruden, CEO of the Johnson & Johnson subsidiary Ethicon Products, his presence at the Norderstedt ceremony signifying the importance of this centre to the company.
For Cornelia Groehl, president of Ethicon Deutschland, this inauguration was the successful conclusion of laborious negotiations. With enormous commitment she had convinced her US employers that Germany was the only logical choice in which to base an international mesh technology centre. The company-owned European Surgical Institute, with excellent contacts with top surgeons throughout Europe, ultimately may have helped to tip the scales in favour of Norderstedt.
The team of the new Mesh Technology Centre will focus on research, development and production of meshes for surgery and gynaecology. The meshes allow minimally invasive interventions – a reason for Cornelia Groehl to consider the 1.7 million building project as ‘an investment in the future’ since the implant market records double-digit growth.
The new lightweight meshes are high-tech artworks, barely resembling their unwieldy predecessors. The new generation of material integrates with weakened tissue, at the same time providing support without harming surrounding tissue or causing excessive pain. This technology, which offers immense benefits to the patients, is used about four million times a year globally to repair hernias and other soft tissue defects as well as in plastic and pelvic floor surgery.
Cornelia Groehl is proud that, with the Mesh Centre, the company clearly signals its commitment to the German site: ‘It is a recognition for our work and the innovative potential of our staff. It’s also a logical decision, because Germany has been the leader in mesh technology for years – and this is no coincidence: Physicians are innovative, and particularly German physicians.’ The fact that Norderstedt also offers certain synergies was clearly also significant. On site are Europe’s most important production facilities for suture material, needles and absorbable implants from biomaterials, including the firm’s European Surgical Institute (ESI) training centre, where every year over 10,000 physicians from all over Europe learn to use the instruments and MIS techniques. Along with training, they also provide feedback to the trainers, a crucial input to Johnson & Johnson’s R&D.
It’s no surprise that the surgeons themselves gave the decisive drive
for the development of the new meshes. In 1993, Professor Volker Schumpelick, head of surgery at University Hospital Aachen, and colleagues discussed the idea of flexible, lightweight and wide-meshed devices that could meet the body’s needs. They were certain that such a mesh would reduce infections and rejections and help patients to maintain full mobility. ‘People bend and bow and move, they exercise, they gain weight and women bear children. Our connective tissues offer enormous stability combined with impressive flexibility – and the materials that replace and support weakened tissues should ideally do the same,’ said Dr Schumpelick. Ethicon Products was then the only manufacturer prepared to risk investment in the development of such materials. ‘That was courageous,’ Prof Schumpelick observed. ‘As it went against the trend. I think it’s exactly this kind of courage that is the hallmark of a truly innovative company.’ Today, flexible high-tech meshes are an international standard.
In the future, the machines at the Worldwide Mesh Technology Centre will annually create over half a million surgical meshes, such as Vypro and Ultrapro. Different designs and combinations of materials will be offered for a wide range of functions: some implants meant to stay in tissue forever, others to dissolve in a set period.
The next generation of meshes envisaged are bioactive meshes that offer more than mere mechanical support for tissue. Cornelia Groehl and Dr Schumpelick have no doubts: the application potential of mesh technology in healthcare is far from exhausted – that is why they know the research to be conducted at the Worldwide Mesh Technology Centre will prove immensely important.
01.07.2008
