BHP Opens New Elemental Impurities Testing Facility

Ireland-based BHP Laboratories, a provider of measuring, testing, and analytical services, now offers complete elemental impurities testing services for the medtech sector. The company made a significant investment in its facilities over the last 12 months with the introduction of an ISO 7 cleanroom for sample preparation and two state-of-the-art inductively coupled plasma spectrometers (inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry and inductively coupled plasma–optical emission spectrometry) for the analysis of samples. The new facility was officially opened on Dec. 17, 2019 by Pat Breen, minister for Trade, Employment, Business, EU Digital Single Market, and Data Protection, Ireland.

The investment by BHP will allow the company to meet existing client needs and to further expand into United Kingdom and European markets.

“Our customers within the pharmaceutical and medical device industries are regulated by very strict quality control requirements and want to work with accredited and approved laboratories. They also want to reduce lead times for testing. Our investment comes on the back of significant growth in the number of customers looking for our services in the past few years,” said Dervla Purcell, laboratory manager at BHP Laboratories, in a company press release.

“The new cleanroom sample preparation facility along with the ICP [inductively coupled plasma] instruments complement our existing in-house techniques, such as GCMS [gas chromatography–mass spectrometry], LCMS [liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry], and HPLC [high-performance liquid chromatography], and allows us to offer a complete testing package to clients where time and compliance are critical,” Purcell added in the press release.

“As a premier independent and multidisciplinary laboratory in Ireland that is already employing [more than] 50 people, I am very pleased that it continues to expand its business in the Mid-West region. The work conducted by BHP ultimately allows the pharma, life sciences, and MedTech industries to continue producing innovative new products which will be sold on global markets. Collectively we are enhancing the competitiveness of the Irish economy while helping to create the jobs of the future,” said Breen in the press release.

Source: BHP Laboratories