Solesis is a biomaterials company with a storied history. It began when a family-owned industrial textile company had aspirations to grow into the medical sector. Solesis advanced from those origins and kept growing, going through several changes in ownership—including 10 years as a subsidiary of British company Fenner Plc—and then being acquired by globally recognised tire brand, Michelin as part of its purchase of Fenner.
Today, Solesis is an independent company majority-owned by American-based private equity firm Altaris Capital Partners and Michelin, who have partnered with a shared ambition to rapidly realize Solesis’s growth potential.
“Michelin is a world-leading tire company with a core competency in polymer science,” explains Karen West, CEO of Solesis. “After they acquired Fenner, they were very interested in what Solesis was doing in the life sciences space, especially its focus on material science. At that time, Solesis was Michelin’s only healthcare subsidiary, and today we maintain a strong R&D partnership with them.”
Solesis develops solutions that lie at the intersection of polymer science and biology. All the products it manufactures come into contact with blood, tissue, and cells, so the quality of these materials is essential.
“We need that strength in polymer science to provide products that enhance performance,” West says. “We’ve been partnering with the medical device and pharmaceutical industries to enable the development and commercialisation of advanced therapies for the last 20 years. It’s a great thing to be part of.”
Platforming Technology
Talking to West it is clear her goal is to excel across the multiple technology platforms where Solesis operates. Those platforms include a focus on delivering custom-designed components for cardiovascular devices and single-use solutions that enable advanced therapies designed to treat or cure cancer or other disease states.
“We also do combination products, with the ability to design and develop implants with active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) embedded in them for controlled drug delivery,” West tells us.
This technology is not just cutting-edge—it is part of a growing trend in the pharma industry, where Solesis is an active participant.
“We are hyper-focused on being experts on the tech platforms we work with. We are already best-in-class for many of the technologies we offer, and we continue to push those expectations higher, especially with our hands-on design and development capabilities. We want to strike a contrast between us and our competitors,” West says.
According to West, Solesis builds that contrast through intense customer focus and relationships that help define how biomaterials solutions need to perform to advance the latest innovations.
Film Stars
To continue to grow its capabilities, Solesis recently acquired Polyzen LLC, a leading developer and manufacturer of polymer-based film and coating technologies for the medical device and biopharmaceutical industries.
“Our development activities are focused on polymeric materials,” says West. “We wanted to add a strong platform in film technologies, and Polyzen provides Solesis with that film platform. They’re very active in the medical device arena, which is a very strong strategic market for us, and they are a high-performing organization” says West.
Ultimately, the acquisition will prove instrumental in helping Solesis achieve its long-term goals.
“Our biggest challenge has been continuously and successfully evolving to be a significant value chain contributor for these advanced therapeutics where demands keep escalating,” West says. “It takes a lot of patience to align with technology that requires early-stage investment. Innovations can take years to come to fruition, and we need to build a deep pipeline to ensure our continued growth. It also takes a lot of endurance. It’s a very demanding, heavily regulated industry, but we thrive on these challenges. It’s not for everyone.”
Solesis thrives on these challenges thanks to its laser focus on meeting customer expectations.
“We are incredibly focused on our customers. Their success leads to our success, so they have our team’s passion, energy, and non-wavering commitment,” says West. “I firmly believe that ordinary people can do great things. We have a great team of people. We are an organization that gives people opportunities and long-term support for developing meaningful careers.”
It’s easier to succeed when people are passionate about what they do, according to West. “Even though we are a few steps removed from the patient through our position in the value chain, our contributions to advancing healthcare technologies and therapeutics directly lead to improving the lives of patients. It’s about something bigger than us.”
