A round-up of other technology stories in brief

Drug delivery firm Aerogen moves production to Shannon from Far East

Galway drug delivery company Aerogen has confirmed it is moving production of its Aeroneb Solo device from the Far East back to Ireland. The product, which is used to deliver drugs to patients in intensive care, will be manufactured by US firm Molex at its facility in Shannon.

Aerogen chief executive John Power said the product was initially assembled by hand overseas to get it to market ahead of competitors. It will now be produced on an automated line in Ireland. “There are a lot of companies in Ireland who are outsourcing to China who should consider automation and moving back to Ireland,” said Mr Power.

Altobridge and Aeromobile

In Net Resultson September 24th, we stated that the OnAir inflight mobile phone system trialled with Ryanair earlier this year was based on technology from Altobridge.

In fact, Kerry-headquartered Altobridge has no connection with OnAir.

It is, however, behind the industry’s most successful inflight GSM system from Aeromobile which launched the world’s first commercial inflight mobile communications service in March 2008.

Call for regulations to boost engineering

The engineering industry should be regulated to raise standards, attract foreign investment and smooth the transition to a smart economy, says Lionel Alexander, managing director of Hewlett-Packard Manufacturing.

His comments came as Boston Scientific was named the overall Engineers Ireland continuing professional development company of the year. Its activities resulted in a large RD unit and high-tech manufacturing plant in Galway.