Product News

Foster Delivery Science, a business unit of Foster Corp. that specialises in contract development and manufacturing of implant and drug delivery polymers, now offers custom radiopaque PEEK compounds for use in long-term orthopaedic implants. A twin screw extruder within the company’s Class 7 cGMP cleanroom is designed to produce development PEEK compound batches as small as 2.27 kg through production quantities.

PEEK is common in intervertebral body fusion devices, and is finding new applications in spinal surgeries, trauma repair and joint replacement. The proliferation of applications has created demand for customised compounds with specific properties, including PEEK filled with additives that provide visibility under x-ray (radiopacity) to implanted components. 

Custom compounding PEEK polymer requires specialised extrusion equipment capable of temperatures exceeding 371°C. PEEK compounds used in orthopaedic applications must be processed in a controlled, cGMP cleanroom environment.

Foster Delivery Science added high-temperature custom compounding capabilities, up to 482°C, for processing PEEK within its 900 sq ft-cleanroom. The company’s 27-mm extruder is capable of small scale formulation development trials through process development and full manufacturing of implantable materials.

Foster Delivery Science
Putnam, CT, USA  +1 860 928 4102