January 14, 2009//
An Australia-based medical-safety device company is moving its headquarters to Fairview Township, York County.
Unilife Medical Services is shifting its center of operations to the Lewisberry-area facility of Integrated BioSciences Inc. (IBS), which Unilife acquired in 2007.
“We would anticipate by the end of this quarter — March 31– that for all intents and purposes, Central Pennsylvania will be our global headquarters,” said Stephen Allan, the company’s vice president of communications.
The move brings Unilife closer to key business partners, including the New Jersey-based U.S. arm of France-based pharmaceutical company sanofi-aventis.
In July, Unilife inked a five-year exclusive license agreement to produce its Ready-To-Fill Syringe, which is manufactured at the York County facility, for sanofi-aventis.
Unilife expects to sign two more agreements with sanofi-aventis within 18 months, according to an analysis by New York-based equity firm Crystal Research Associates.
Unilife employs 60 people at IBS and plans to add at least 100 more workers, Allan said. “The majority will be focused on the design, development and production of innovative medical devices,” he said.
The company is expanding to fill the 50,000-square-foot IBS plant, including adding offices, clean rooms and facilities for projects Allan said it will reveal later.
Unilife, which is publically traded in Australia, plans to apply for listing on a U.S. exchange such as the Nasdaq, Allan said.