About Us
Portal Medical Ltd was incorporated in 2008, to exploit intellectual property in the field of gas plasma coating technology for pharmaceutical devices, specifically pressurised metered dose inhaler canisters for treating asthma and COPD conditions.
Gas Plasma Technology
Gas plasma is a technology where ultra-pure gases are energised using a radio frequency (RF) power source within a vacuum chamber. Process conditions are accurately controlled to form a polymeric coating on components within the chamber which are excipient and solvent free. The coatings are generally hydrophobic with outstanding cohesive strength.
Gas plasma technology is carried out at relatively low temperatures with the ability to produce pin hole free coatings on a variety of polymeric and metallic materials which are used in the healthcare field. Complex geometric shapes and bores are able to be coated using this clean, wet chemistry free coating solution, without leaving residues or waste products.
The company develops coatings for a variety of products/components, and has the design and build capability to take a bench top idea up to a large scale validated production process.
Expert knowledge of gas plasma parameters enable us to quickly develop a process to resolve your product surface issues.
Portal has designed and built plasma reactors with a capacity of over 30 million units per annum to supply the first gas plasma coated metered dose inhaler canister into the pharmaceutical market.
The company has two founders, Dr Paul Stevenson and Darren Bromley-Davenport MBA.
Portal Medical holds over 27 patents worldwide for fluorocarbon coatings/surface modifications for Metered Dose Inhaler devices and its components.
Paul Stevenson
Director
Dr Paul Stevenson is the Managing Director of Portal Medical specialising in medical device materials and surface technologies. Having gained a Special Honours degree in Engineering Design he went on to complete a masters degree and PhD in the same with an emphasis on surface and materials technology primarily for automotive and motorsport applications. His expertise in plasma nano-surface films, PVD/CVD technology and surface analytical techniques has been transferred across many industry sectors and along side his F1/motorsport activities he has been active in medical and drug delivery devices for 17 years.
He has successfully implemented plasma surface technologies in inhaled drug delivery devices to aid with drug adhesion/degradation issues, reduction in activation force and barrier properties (moisture and other). In addition he has worked where plasma films have been used as dry lubrication surface modifier's, for example pMDI stems, and surface modification in bonding applications where intrinsic reliability is paramount such as balloon catheters for cardiovascular stents and heart valve applications. He has expertise in surface characterisation techniques to assess product performance including XPS (X-Ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy), SIMS (Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry) and nano-3D profiling amongst others and has utilised these to look at drug adhesion and distribution on pMDI component surfaces.
Darren Bromley-Davenport MBA
Director
Darren has over 25 years experience in the medical device industry sector.
He originally trained as a research chemist for ICI PLC, moving to a start-up medical device company where he jointly developed a novel polyurethane wound dressing.
Darren is a Co-founder of Advanced Medical Solutions PLC. He was involved in building the business from initial product concepts to a public company with sales in regulated markets in excess of £10 million per annum.
He was directly involved in developing and scaling up new product developments such as polyurethane foams, films, hydrocolloids and alginates.
After working for a pharmaceutical device manufacturing business, he left to set up Portal Medical Ltd, involved in the concept and commercialization of the plasma coating of pMDI canisters and valve components for the asthma/COPD therapeutic area.
Darren has an MBA from Durham University Business School
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