After an initial call to action presented at the 2017 Medical Design & Manufacturing Conference and Exposition in New York City, Ethicon convened the first Medical-Grade Materials Consortium Mini-Conference on 8 August 2019, in Cincinnati.
The conference established that the scope and ultimate goal of the MGMC initiative would focus on developing a comprehensive definition of ‘medical-grade’ materials, with an emphasis on polymers used in four broad application categories:
• Medical-grade materials
• Locked-down grade materials
• Pharmaceutical packaging materials
• Skin-contact grade materials
It was determined that nonmedical and implant-grade materials would not be included within the scope of the initiative.
Establishing a uniform set of criteria for defining these materials is an important step in helping manufacturers and regulators ensure that the materials used in manufacturing medical products meet their agreed-upon specifications. When fully harmonized, such criteria will simplify the selection and use of appropriate materials across the globe.
MGMC Leadership
Direction of MGMC’s conferences and related initiatives is guided by industry volunteers with extensive experience in medical materials. Overall leadership is the role of Jacqueline Anim, BSc, MSc, PhD (hon.), senior principal materials engineer at Johnson & Johnson Medtech (Cincinnati), who has more than 30 years of experience in materials and process technology solutions for plastic applications in both automotive and medical technology markets. The leader of MGMC’s ASTM Medical-Grade Cohort is M. Scott Taylor, PhD, chief technology officer at Poly-Med Inc. (Anderson, SC), where he specializes in materials selection and medical device design. The leader of MGMC’s Sustainability Cohort is Chris Johnson, BSc, senior director of sustainability at Ascend Performance Materials (Houston), where he is responsible for driving the company’s efforts around environmental impact reductions and setting sustainability targets throughout the business. Learn more about MGMC’s leadership team here.
MGMC Partners
