In 2023, Medistri sterilized almost 400 million pharmaceutical vials.

Since its founding in 2006, Medistri has risen to become the Swiss leader in its field. But the Fribourg-based company is not resting on its laurels: growth and diversification are still the order of the day at Medistri. After doubling its plant capacity in 2020, Medistri has recently added a sixth production line.

At the core of Medistri’s operations at its plant in Domdidier is the sterilization of medical equipment, a process that is critical for patient safety. The company uses different sterilization methods, such as steam and ethylene oxide sterilization, depending on its customers’ specific requirements. Thanks to this versatility, Medistri can handle a wide spectrum of products, from simple syringes to highly complex medical devices. According to Sean Nilforoushan, Head of Business Development, “We sterilized around 400 million pharmaceutical vials in 2023 alone.” Most of the equipment that passes through the facility is destined for export.

The company, which has assorted multinationals in Switzerland and in western Europe in its order books, owes a good part of its success to its adaptability and short turnaround times. “We need an average of four to seven days to treat a product, whereas our competitors need between three to four weeks,” Nilforoushan explains. Medistri is also committed to offering its customers maximum transparency at the logistics level, “We want to be the standard for industry to follow by being completely transparent about our service flows – from the placement of the order to the shipment of the products – so that our customers can forecast their supply chain needs with greater accuracy.”

Hands-on support for innovative start-ups

Medistri also offers advanced laboratory, manufacturing and, most recently, packaging validation services. Its laboratory work centers on microbiological, chemical and sterile barrier integrity testing. The Head of Business Development is proud of the rigorous tests that the company has in place to ensure the resistance and integrity of the packaged sterilized products, from shipping to storage, “On the laboratory side, we work closely with innovative start-ups and provide them with support during the prototyping phase, right through to final output. This special behind-the-scenes access to research and development is a huge source of motivation for our team.”

What does the future hold for this thriving family business? “A few years ago, we pivoted our strategy slightly by shifting our focus from medtech to pharma. We anticipate that there will be exponential advances in the biotech industry thanks primarily to machine learning. We are ideally placed in the coming years to leverage these developments to further improve patient safety worldwide.”