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Atramat’s New Plant Supports Strategic Growth in the Market

Alejandro Von Mohr - Atramat
Director General

STORY INLINE POST

Miriam Bello By Miriam Bello | Senior Journalist and Industry Analyst - Tue, 01/26/2021 - 12:54

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Q: How has Internacional Farmacéutica’s new plant supported Atramat’s operations?

A: The plant, called S&Mohr America, is a co-investment between Atramat and our Turkish partners that have 25 years of expertise in anesthesia and ventilation circuits. The regulatory process for this plant began in 2020, meaning that in just a couple of months, we obtained all the necessary regulatory certificates, including Good Manufacturing Practices, ISO 13485 and CE Mark. We have been commercializing these circuits for about two months in Mexico and we will soon start exporting them to five Latin American countries.

Q: How is Atramat innovating in the sutures market and what are some of your recent contributions to the sector?

A:  Right now, due to the pandemic, the market is ruled by respiratory products. Hospitals have reduced considerably the number of regular surgeries, as a result our strongest business line which are surgical supplies have decreased in demand. However, we have already started to experience growth in demand and we hope to start seeing a recovery by the end of the year regarding surgical supplies.

Regardless of the pandemic, the company has not stopped innovating. In the end of 2019, we acquired a company in Germany called Santec Medical GmbH, which is dedicated to innovate in the field of cardiac surgery. They developed a new product that allows a less invasive and safer procedure for the repair or replacement of mitral valves. While Atramat does have experience in this field this is the first time that we are growing significantly in this market. This is a strategic step for these types of applications that are an essential life support for patients. This acquisition allows us to continue innovating through that company and to be able to commercialize such products in all markets where we are present.

Q: As one of the world’s largest supplier of surgical sutures, how did Atramat respond to the COVID-19 outbreak in Mexico?

A: We have a very strong distribution network that covers all private and public entities which was especially useful during the pandemic and enabled us to keep our distribution undisrupted for the continuity of the surgeries in Hospitals in Mexico and Worldwide.

Internally, in order to avoid unexpected situations regarding manufacturing due to COVID-19, we decided to provide our employees and plants with safety measures above the standard requirements, such as private transportation to ensure the continuity of our production lines and to prevent contagion within the plants, tracking suspicious cases so we could act early and relying on private laboratories for COVID-19 tests, among others.

Q: How will the government’s decision to create a new distribution center for medical devices impact Atramat’s operations?

A: We continue participating in regular government tenders to keep offering our top-quality devices at a very competitive price. It is not yet clear if essential or primary-need products will also be subject to the new purchasing and distribution management that the government is undertaking. However, we are one of the main distributors for UNICEF in surgical sutures, so we can use this experience to the UN acquisitions purchases with the Mexican government.

Q: What are the company’s priorities for the second half of the year?

A: We are anticipating a recovery in demand for our regular surgical products which we expect to full fil as the months go by. Additionally, through our acquisition of Santec Medical we hope to boost sales of our surgical sutures in the German and European markets, which already have recognized the high quality of all our products.

 

Atramat is one of the world’s largest suppliers of surgical sutures. The company has over 50 years of experience. It belongs to Internacional Farmacéutica and its products are sold in over 80 countries

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