Healthcare Plastics 2026: What I Want to Discuss at COMPAMED

Markus Bayer

Markus Bayer, Healthcare Segment Leader at Ultrapolymers, will be at COMPAMED 2026 with colleagues from the Ultrapolymers Healthcare Team. With more than ten years of experience in healthcare across a broad range of materials, Markus works with brand owners, designers and converters across Europe to identify suitable material, development and supply options for medical products. Ahead of the show, he sets out the questions he expects to be discussing.

At COMPAMED 2026, I mainly want to discuss one question: how can we improve healthcare products without adding unnecessary material, complexity or risk?

Making better use of the materials already available

For me, innovation does not automatically mean using the newest plastic. There are important developments taking place, particularly in bio-based and bio-attributed solutions, but many useful improvements begin by reconsidering how existing materials are used.

A product may have been designed many years ago around the materials and manufacturing approach preferred at the time, and its specification has stayed largely unchanged because it works and has been approved. That stability is important in healthcare. But it can also mean a material remains specified after the original reasons for choosing it are no longer fully relevant.

It is often worth reviewing an existing specification first:

Does the component really need the full property profile?
Can we reduce part weight or wall thickness, or improve processing?
Can we use fewer material families?
Is there now a suitable lower-carbon, bio-attributed or bio-based option?

There will not always be a reason to change. Where there is an opportunity, asking these questions early can improve a product's material efficiency, manufacturability, environmental profile and supply position.

Sustainability starts with the application

There is no single definition of a sustainable healthcare plastic, and no material provides the right answer for every device.

Whether conventional, bio-attributed or bio-based, a material must first suit the application. Mechanical performance, sterilisation, chemical resistance, dimensional stability, biocompatibility, transparency, shelf life, documentation, notification of change and processing all remain decisive. Sustainability belongs in this assessment, but not in place of it.

For some applications, the right approach may be reducing the quantity of material used. For others, it could mean simplifying an assembly, improving manufacturing efficiency or moving to a lower-density plastic.

Other projects may be able to consider bio-attributed solutions from producers such as LyondellBasell and INEOS Styrolution, which offer a route to alternative feedstocks while retaining the technical characteristics of established material families. Bio-based materials create another route. Our work with BIOVOX, for example, gives customers access to medical plastic options for medical devices, drug delivery, laboratory products and healthcare packaging. The suitability of any grade still needs to be considered against the complete technical, regulatory and processing brief.

These are different approaches. Bio-attributed, bio-based, recycled and conventional medical-grade plastics should not be treated as interchangeable sustainability labels. Each has different benefits, limitations, documentation and implications for product approval.

Less complexity, rather than mono-material at any cost

Mono-material design is receiving more attention because reducing the number of incompatible materials in a product can make separation and recycling at end of life more practical.

In healthcare, however, a fully mono-material device will not always be realistic. A device may need rigid, flexible, transparent, chemically resistant or dimensionally stable components, and one plastic may not provide every property across the assembly. It is often more realistic to reduce unnecessary variety, select compatible materials and design components so they can be separated more easily later. That could mean reconsidering unnecessary coatings, colours and additives, or using one plastic family for both rigid and flexible functions where technically possible.

For me, mono-material design is therefore not an instruction to force every device into one material. It is a prompt to ask whether the existing level of complexity is justified.

When high-stiffness polypropylene is the right fit

PC and PC/ABS remain the right choice for many healthcare components, particularly where impact performance, dimensional characteristics, heat resistance or appearance are critical. The question is whether every component needs that complete property profile.

One example where we have practical and commercial experience is a project in which selected autoinjector components were developed in high-stiffness polypropylene (Purell EA678P) rather than PC/ABS. In an appropriate application, high-stiffness PP can offer lower density, good flow, efficient processing and the possibility of simplifying a product around a polyolefin material family. Depending on the design and processing conditions, it may also support lower component weight or shorter moulding cycles.

It is not a drop-in solution. It needed to be designed in from the very start, making the most of the PP's strengths while developing around the areas where it falls short of PC/ABS. Before making the change, the developers had to assess stiffness and impact performance, dimensional tolerances, creep and long-term loading, operating temperature, sterilisation and chemical exposure, appearance, moulding and assembly, and biocompatibility, regulatory and change-control requirements.

The purpose is not to promote one plastic at the expense of another. It is to check whether an established specification is still the most efficient response to the component's actual requirements.

Can a bio-based material be used in a syringe system?

This is another area where we have direct experience, working with ELM Plastics and BIOVOX, our biopolymer supplier.

Suitability depends on the component. Direct drug contact, transparency, barrier properties, sterilisation, shelf life, dimensional accuracy and regulatory evidence all need to be assessed. A protective or secondary component may have a very different material brief from a syringe barrel or drug-contact component.

Supply security belongs in development

A technically strong material is only a robust choice if it remains available over the long term. Once a plastic is approved, an alternative may require extensive testing and qualification, so origin, regional supply, change management, documentation and possible alternatives should be clarified before approval. In healthcare, a lack of supply can quickly become a loss of trust.

This matters even more when a specification set in one country is adopted by manufacturing plants across several markets. As part of the wider Ravago Group, Ultrapolymers can help connect the organisation controlling the specification with local manufacturing teams to identify technically and commercially suitable supply routes near the relevant plants.

Practical innovation matters

I do not expect every important conversation at COMPAMED 2026 to concern a newly invented plastic. For me, the best solution is not automatically the newest. It meets the actual requirements with as little unnecessary material, manufacturing and supply-chain burden as possible, and it is easier to reach when material specialists are involved before key design decisions are fixed.

Continue the discussion at COMPAMED 2026

These subjects do not have simple, standard answers. The right option depends on the device, part, regulatory pathway, manufacturing process and markets being supplied.

I will be at COMPAMED 2026 in Düsseldorf (16–19 November) with the Ultrapolymers Healthcare Team in Hall 8b, Stand H08. If you are reviewing an existing specification, developing a new healthcare product or looking to improve sustainability without increasing regulatory or supply risk, come and speak with us.

Bring the application, the current material and the specific challenge. We can start from there.