Commenting on the new agreement, Carol Pudnos, Dow Corning's global healthcare industry director, said, "Increased access to our materials and technology will enable our customers to further address evolving healthcare megatrends such as aging-population and the rise of chronic diseases." Michael L. Rademacher, president of PolyOne Distribution, noted the strong position of Dow Corning's specialty products in the healthcare industry and said that this agreement further expands PolyOne's value-adding strategy of helping device makers and processors streamline their logistics and inventory management, in addition to providing them with strong technical support and materials choices.
The agreement with Dow Corning fits well strategically with what PolyOne told PlasticsToday on the show's first day about its increasingly strong focus on the medical market, which includes but is not limited to this broader variety of materials. In a separate but related statement on the same day, PolyOne announced that its NEU Specialty Engineered Materials subsidiary (North Haven, CT), which has emerged from PolyOne's December 2009 acquisition of New England Urethane, will further add to PolyOne's offerings for the healthcare industry. PolyOne's earlier acquisition of thermoplastic elastomer supplier GLS, which sells nearly a third of its products in the healthcare arena, is yet another plank of that strategy.
