Today, polymers are amongst the most widely used materials in the medical industry. Speciality polymers play an essential role in driving the development of new technologies and medical product and device innovations. It’s a space where, the new name notwithstanding, Syensqo, with its deep expertise and wealth of experience, has notched up notable success.
Syensqo made its first appearance in the market in January 2024, formed when 160-year-old global chemicals company, Solvay, spun-off its speciality business.
Founded in 1863, Solvay’s original development was a process for the production of soda ash; over the years a diverse range of materials were brought to market to meet the demands of many industries.
“So, while Syensqo is a new name in the market today, our materials, technologies and people have been providing speciality polymer products, such as Udel PSU and Radel PPSU to the healthcare sector for decades,” said Natalie Dragunat, a global marketing manager at Syensqo.
As a company, Syensqo today is active in several business areas, of which Speciality Polymers is the largest; within the Speciality Polymers business, healthcare is an important and strategic market for the company.
“We play in three main applications: packaging with high-barrier PVDC used in blister packs; hemodialysis with sulfones for blood filtration; and medical devices. Within medical devices, our markets include surgical instruments, implants, applications in biopharmaceutical processing, and many other applications within the medical device market where we leverage our speciality product portfolio – one of the largest in the industry,” clarified Federico Baruffi, who, like Natalie Dragunat, is also active as a global marketing manager at Syensqo.
“It is worth noting that we are the only company in the world producing sulfone-based implantable materials,” he added.
The market for polymers suitable for use in medical applications shows no signs of slowing down, they both pointed out. In fact, the overall market demand for plastics suitable for medical applications is expected to exceed $28 billion in the coming years. The popularity of plastic materials in this market, in particular the success of the speciality polymers, is due to a number of reasons.
Dragunat: “Speciality polymers offer a unique value proposition in medical applications. First, speciality polymers have excellent strength, stiffness and thermal stability, similar to metal, but are much lighter in weight than metal devices, in some cases up to 50%. Lighter weight devices offer improved ergonomics and ease-of-use for medical professionals.”
Another advantage polymer materials can offer is that they may be either transparent or coloured, allowing for quick identification and visual management in medical settings, thus increasing efficiency and helping to reduce errors.
Finally, said Baruffi, polymers offer a range of processing capabilities from machining of stock shapes to injection moulding. “A frequent misconception is that high-strength, high performance polymer parts cannot be achieved through injection moulding. In fact, the ease and efficiency of injection moulding speciality polymer materials allows manufacturers to more cost-effectively scale their part production, compared with similar metal designs, which is just one of the reasons plastics are rapidly replacing their metal counterparts,” he said.
The injection moulding of speciality polymers results in excellent surface quality directly from the moulding operation, eliminating the high cost and time of polishing and assembling a similar machined metal component.
Moreover, in addition to providing strength, stiffness and durability, polymer materials enable more complex geometries to be created than when using traditional metal materials. In products designed to be injection moulded, the combination and consolidation of parts is also possible. While Syensqo does not design parts, the company offers designers of medical products several supportive services that allow predictive analysis of the part during the design phase. Finite Element Analysis (FEA), Moldflow analysis, and Computer Aided Engineering (CAE) simulations help predict the behaviour of a new part and allow device designers to realise more efficient solutions.
Material considerations
These advantages notwithstanding, numerous factors must be weighed in selecting the right material for a medical application.
Both single-use and reusable medical devices comply with strict regulatory standards of biocompatibility. ISO 10993 is typically the standard requirement that materials must meet in order to be utilised in medical applications.
“Medical environments are often harsh, containing many different types of chemicals, from pharmaceutical products to cleaning agents,” noted Dragunat. “Therefore, when choosing a polymer material, it is important to consider the chemical resistance of the polymer.”
Finally, sterilisation compatibility is an important consideration. Reusable devices require materials with a capability to withstand a higher number of sterilisation cycles than single use devices, but compatibility with multiple sterilisation methods is a key consideration for both, given the varying methods used throughout the industry.
“For example, Syensqo’s Ixef PARA has been specifically engineered for single procedure instrumentation and performs excellent in gamma sterilisation, while Radel PPSU, a polymer that has been utilised in the medical industry for over 30 years, is the standard for repeat use instrumentation and maintains its properties throughout 1,000 steam sterilisation cycles,” Baruffi said.
Additive manufacturing: the new frontier
Additive manufacturing is a newer frontier in medical devices, particularly for use in structural implants such as cranial plates and spinal cages. Over the years, the implant industry has evolved from machined metal to machined polymer to printed metal, with the newest development being printed polymer. Syensqo has recognised these trends and has developed a new polyketone-based polymer for SLS-based 3D printing of implants.
According to Dragunat, the recyclability of PEEK-based SLS has typically been a hurdle in the past, however, ‘Syensqo’s implant-grade polyketone is highly suited for SLS printing with excellent recyclability of the powder’.
The growth of AI and digital technology will continue to translate to the medical industry, with device companies evolving to data companies. Digital technology management of patient outcomes, such as wearable and implantable monitoring devices will continue to evolve and offer increased knowledge for both physicians and patients.
Catching the sustainability trend
Sustainability has penetrated deeply into the plastics world, and the medical industry has not remained unaffected. One sector where sustainability has been recognised as a key need is in the pharmaceutical packaging industry. Pharmaceutical packaging is a critical aspect of the healthcare industry, ensuring the safety, efficacy and integrity of medical products. As the global demand for pharmaceuticals continues to rise, the packaging industry faces numerous challenges to meet the ever-evolving market demands. Today's pharmaceutical packaging and blisters must not only protect the contents from external factors but also align with sustainability goals and environmental concerns.
Syensqo understands the need for innovation in this area very well. “To accommodate these trends in the pharma packaging domain, we recently launched a new grade of our Diofan product family, named Ultra736,” said Baruffi. He elaborated: “This new grade, having better barrier properties vs standard PVDC solutions, enables a 50% reduction of the barrier layer in transparent pharmaceutical blister films without compromising on performance. Effectively, films having half the coating thickness can be used without losing any shelf-life for the drugs. Considering the overall blister film, this leads to a 13% reduction of GWP at an equivalent barrier.”
Due to their biological inertness, Solvay’s Radel PPSU compounds are widely used in medical, food service and plumbing applications, often replacing metals to save weight and eliminate corrosion. Udel PSU resins are particularly characterised by low levels of extractables and solubles, which has made them a preferred material choice in water treatment, healthcare and bioprocessing, including components for membrane filtration and renal dialysis.
Syensqo also offers a speciality products portfolio marketed under the ECHO brand name. These products address three customer needs and value propositions: low CO2, biobased content and recycled content. The circular solutions in the ECHO portfolio range from resins made from non-food competing biobased feedstocks, to mass balanced resins.
Last year, Syensqo launched the first ISCC-PLUS mass balance compliant circular sulfone materials in the market and commercially available world-wide as part of their ECHO portfolio of products. The new Radel PPSU ECHO RP mass-balanced certified is a material suitable for healthcare applications. The product offers the same performance as traditional Radel, but through a certified mass-balance approach — a portion of the fossil-based feedstock is replaced with circular alternatives, contributing to less use of finite resources and to lowering the carbon footprint of the products.
“This is a major achievement as we strive to accelerate the transition of our industry towards a more circular economy through the substitution of fossil resources with sustainably and responsibly sourced alternatives,” said Dr. Bianca Shemper, sustainable sourcing manager for Syensqo’s Speciality Polymers global business unit.
“Our ECHO products cover options for post-industrial and post-consumer recycled materials, as well as a range of recycled fibres. The ECHO portfolio grows daily as more sources of raw materials become available to us,” she added.
Making Syensqo's engineering plastics more sustainable involves a multifaceted approach that spans the entire lifecycle of the products, from raw material sourcing to manufacturing, usage, and end-of-life management. Syensqo can enhance the sustainability of its engineering plastics by implementing strategies involving: the use of renewable feedstocks, energy efficiency in manufacturing, recycling technologies promoting a circular economy, eco-design considerations, life cycle assessments studies, regulatory compliance, collaborations and partnerships, and maintaining transparency about the environmental impacts of our products and operations through regular sustainability reporting.
The recycling conundrum
Plastics used for medical applications can be recycled, according to both Dragunat and Baruffi, but there are challenges and complexities involved.
“First, proper segregation of medical plastics from other types of medical waste and general waste streams is crucial. This requires careful handling and sorting processes. Medical plastics may also be contaminated with bodily fluids, medications, or other substances which can complicate the recycling process. Contamination can affect the quality and safety of the final recycled material. Additionally, some types of medical plastics may require specialised recycling technologies due to their composition or the additives used to meet medical requirements. These recycling technologies may not be widely available or cost-effective,” they maintained.
Typically, recycled materials from medical applications cannot be utilised again in medical applications due to the strict regulatory requirements. However, they often find a use in other industries.
A better healthcare waste management process in general could be achieved through various actions, including effective waste segregation, sorting, and cleaning at the point of origin to name but a few. The development of proper policies aligned with regulatory systems and waste management infrastructure are key strategic steps.
“Strong partnerships with our customers and the opportunity to create closed loop innovative products through a more sustainable waste management system are an essential part of our strategy,” said Buffari.
Circularity ambitions
As a spin-off from Solvay, Syensqo is a newborn company with a fresh and vigorous future to look forward to. So, just how important is sustainability in its growth strategy?
“Sustainability is at the heart of Syensqo’s strategy. Our sustainability journey is called One Planet. We supply the technologies and solutions our customers need to make their own products more sustainable and to reduce their impact on the environment,” said Buffari.
Syensqo supports its customers in their low-carbon transition through a diverse range of sustainable solutions. The company’s circularity KPI comprise products that are either based on recycled or renewable materials, produced with renewable energy, with increasing longevity in the use phase or enabling recycling at the end of life.
“Our products are in one out of every two electric vehicles, almost every vehicle that flies because we lighten and electrify ground and air mobility, we enable green hydrogen, and we are in 80% of medical packaging and 25% of shampoos.”
Observing that currently, more than 80% of the company’s innovation pipeline is focused on creating sustainable solutions, Dragunat concluded: “We aim to enhance the adoption of circular practices by having 18% of our sales enabling a circular economy by 2030. Integrating sustainability into the company's growth strategy is not only important for environmental and social reasons and to respond to current trends and challenges but also for ensuring long-term business viability and competitiveness. It enables our business to capitalise on new opportunities, enhance its reputation, and ensure its long-term resilience and success in a rapidly changing world.”