A Northern Irish engineering firm has signed a $1.5bn (£892m) contract to supply proprietary technology for Pfizer, the world’s largest pharmaceutical company.
Sepha, based in Belfast, will supply its VisionScan technology used for non-destructive seal and leak detection used in Pfizer’s blister packs.
VisionScan, which was designed by Sepha’s product development team in Northern Ireland two years ago, uses high-resolution imaging technology and was developed to replace the traditional manual test for leaks in pharmaceutical packaging.
Paul Kelly, the company’s head of global sales and marketing, said VisionScan will offer quality and cost benefits for Pfizer.
“VisionScan’s ability to offer a technologically advanced, reliable yet non-destructive alternative to the market standard blue-dye test offers substantial quality and cost benefits for global pharma manufacturers such as Pfizer,” he said.
“We have worked closely with Pfizer’s Process Analytical Technology team to embed the system into their quality control process and we are now talking to a number of other global pharmaceutical organisations who are interested in achieving these objectives.”
