A success story

During a brief stay in hospital, Pierre Simonet, the founder of Vygon, became aware of the difficulties involved in sterilization procedures and the complexity of the tasks performed by health workers. That was when he decided to offer them single-use medical equipment. Plastic, a material with exceptional qualities, then made its debut appearance in hospitals. Pierre Simonet founded Vygon in 1962. This innovation would profoundly change the quality and safety of care provided.

The French company Vygon soon set up in Belgium. The Dimequip plant, founded in 1970, forms part of the company's manufacturing roots. The Biovalve and the suction probes are manufactured here.

Vygon began to realize its international ambitions by setting up a German subsidiary in 1968. A few years later, in 1973, it opened a plant in Aix-la-Chapelle. Its strategy of locating policy centres close to manufacturing sites was already taking shape.

The Seldinger technique is a revolutionary medical innovation based on the work of Dr Sven-Ivar Seldinger. In 1975, Vygon launched Leadercath, a catheter using this technique to provide minimally invasive access to blood vessels and body cavities. This transformed and improved a whole host of medical procedures. The benefits in terms of patient recovery were indisputable. As soon as it was developed, this technique became standard practice.

This industrial site was dedicated to the manufacture of Vygon's ranges of single-use surgical drapes. It also developed custom packs to meet the individual needs of hospital departments. From the early days, the SAP plant initiated a new approach to Vygon's response to the expectations of users of these products. Every year, the SAP plant manufactures five million products.

EPICUTANEO CAVA® was specially designed by Vygon's R&D department to provide medium- and long-term venous access in premature babies and newborns. This is where Vygon's expertise in devices for premature babies and newborns originated. This device enhanced the reliability of parenteral feeding and safe administration of essential medicines. With its peripheral placement system, this catheter ensures effective treatment while respecting the well-being of the smallest babies.

Vygon pursued its industrial adventure by opening a new plant in France, SIPA. It produces medical devices for respiratory care, drainage and pain management such as epidural anaesthesia, spinal anaesthesia and neurostimulation. This plant has acquired extensive experience in manual and semi-automatic products.

Bionector is a major Vygon R&D innovation. It is a closed-system safety connector and a multi-purpose needle-free catheter accessory that can be disinfected. These features represented a significant step forward in terms of safety. For the first time, with Bionector in place, injections, infusions and blood sampling were possible without opening the venous line to the ambient air.

This plant was an important step in the international development of the Vygon Group. On the strength of this Colombian manufacturing site, Vygon was able to successfully develop its business in South America. The plant produces ranges that are particularly well suited to the South American market. Surgical brushes, endotracheal tubes and epicranial tubes are just some of the products manufactured in Barranquilla.

This device is still one of Vygon's greatest successes. The company adopted an old technique developed by Dr Boussignac and used for the first time in 1930 to treat acute pulmonary oedema. The "CPAP" (Continuous Positive Airway Pressure) ventilation technique developed by Vygon in 1999 makes it possible to recruit collapsed pulmonary alveoli, restore a satisfactory level of residual functional capacity, facilitate breathing and improve gas exchanges.

Source : secoursmag

Vygon further enhanced its expertise in care of the smallest babies with Premicath. This polyurethane central venous catheter, with its peripheral placement system, provides short- and medium-term venous access in premature babies and newborns.

In 2005, with the creation of Nutrisafe2, Vygon further confirmed its position as leader in the field of neonatology. This unique and safe enteral feeding system, designed exclusively for premature babies, reduces the risk of connection errors (IV, respiratory, neuraxial, etc.) and enhances patient safety.

This external growth operation considerably strengthened Vygon's presence in the American medical device market.

In 2013, Vygon innovated once again by creating Vadsite, a closed-system, needle-free connector for use with all IV equipment: vascular-access devices, syringes, injection packs, stopcocks, extensions, catheters and cannulas. Universal connections for safer care.

Medwin had been producing feeding pumps for hospitals and home use for 15 years. With this acquisition, Vygon strengthened its manufacturing capacity in France and expanded its range of enteral feeding products. Its products include a range of enteral feeding pumps that are silent, compact and easy to activate. They can be used for outpatient care with the EasyMoov pump, or as a fixed installation with the EasyLit pump.

This ambitious acquisition enabled Vygon to gain a strategic foothold in the market for cardiovascular devices. Perouse Medical designs, manufactures and markets cardiovascular medical devices (stents, vascular prostheses and patches, radial inflation and compression systems, haemostasis valves, angiographic syringes, consumables for CT-scan and MRI contrast media injectors, etc.) and long-term vascular access devices (implantable port catheters, PICCs, Huber needles, dressings to hold catheters in place, etc.).

In 2019, Vygon pursued its external growth by acquiring the Italian company Pilot, whose unique product Pilot™ TLS it was already marketing. The operation allowed Vygon to acquire the Pilot™ TLS ECG-based central venous catheter location and navigation technology. This is one of the only devices that enables precise positioning of the distal end of central venous catheters, including in patients suffering from atrial fibrillation.

When it took over the startup Advanced Perfusion Diagnostics (APD), Vygon became a fully-fledged player in critical patient monitoring. APD specializes in developing innovative monitoring solutions for intensive care and operating theatres. Founded in 2014, APD developed IKORUS®, a device that detects visceral microcirculation alterations in the most critical hospitalized patients.

Through this acquisition, Vygon strengthened its presence in South America and created a new Vygon subsidiary in Latin America. Macatt Medica, which used to distribute the majority of Vygon's products in Peru, including a wide range of enteral feeding products, is now a full member of the Vygon family.

Designed and developed by the French medical startup Carmat, the Aeson heart is the world's first bioprosthetic artificial heart. It is highly haemocompatible, pulsatile and self-regulated. With these original features, it has the potential to save the lives of thousands of patients on heart transplant waiting lists every year. In 2023, Carmat, which was looking for a partner, chose Vygon to develop the new vascular graft that will connect the artificial heart to patients' arteries. This exceptional joint undertaking is rooted in Carmat's confidence in Vygon's aortic system expertise. It is also an endorsement of Vygon's capacity for innovation to develop this new graft, the first of its kind anywhere in the world.