Ottawa medical device maker Epocal to boost production with $10.5M expansion

OTTAWA—An Ontario medical device manufacturer is launching a multimillion-dollar expansion project to boost production and develop a new blood testing product.

Ottawa’s Epocal Inc., which makes wireless-enabled blood diagnostic systems for hospitals and other healthcare facilities, will install two new production lines as well as upgrade existing equipment to help increase its output under the $10.5 million project.

“This investment is helping us ramp up production and develop the only patient-side platform that offers a complete blood gas, electrolyte and metabolite solution on a single test card,” Brett Fogg, Epocal’s plant manager, said.

The provincial government’s Eastern Ontario Development Fund will contribute 10 per cent of the funds required for the capital project with a $1.5 million investment. The initiative is expected to create 48 new jobs at the company’s Ottawa plant.

“Our government is committed to strategic partnerships like these, which are helping to drive economic growth and create jobs,” Brad Duguid, Ontario’s minister of Economic Development, Employment and Infrastructure, said. “We are pleased when forward-thinking companies like Epocal choose to grow their business in Ontario. This project will help Epocal increase productivity, stay competitive and create good paying jobs.”

Following its start-up phase in the early 2000s, Epocal was acquired by American medical diagnotics and monitoring company Alere Inc. for $166 million in 2013. The latest project should increase its Ontario workforce to more than 300 when the expansion is completed in 2018.