San Antonio—NuPak Medical, a contract manufacturer of medical devices, has been purchased for an undisclosed amount by its largest customer, Denville, New Jersey-based Katena Products.
The news of the acquisition was first reported by the San Antonio Business Journal.
NuPak, which was founded in San Antonio in 1997, manufactures medical products such as dental implants, orthopedic devices, diabetes infusion sets, and instruments that can be used during surgery. Katena makes surgical tools and was interested in NuPak for its ability to manufacture ophthalmology and optometry products—areas in which Katena is expanding—says NuPak co-founder and general manager David Cocke.
“They were looking to expand and grow and make a more significant company in eye-related fields,” Cocke said in a telephone interview. “They wanted more of a manufacturing footprint, and NuPak Medical made perfect sense to further that growth trajectory.”
NuPak’s 18 employees are remaining with the company after the acquisition, and there are plans to hire six new people, says Cocke, who will stay on with Katena as a vice president of manufacturing. Katena, which was founded in 1975 and is located about an hour outside of New York, plans to continue working with NuPak’s existing customers and pursue new ones, Cocke says.
NuPak is part of a growing cluster of medical device manufacturers in San Antonio, including giants such as Acelity (formerly known as Kinetic Concepts) and startups such as Bluegrass Vascular and EO2 Concepts developing and making their own products. Incell, another contract manufacturer in the Alamo City, announced last year that it and a Belgian investor are developing a life sciences product accelerator and incubator known as BioTurnKey, which may help create spinoff companies. Another medical device and pharmaceutical product incubator, InCube Labs, also has offices in San Antonio.
