INDIANAPOLIS—Cook Medical Group will invest $7 million to build a 40,000-square-foot assembly plant here, creating 100 jobs.

FRANKLIN LAKES, NJ—Becton, Dickinson and Co. plans to invest approximately $1.2 billion over a four-year period to expand and upgrade manufacturing capacity and technology for pre-fillable syringes and advanced drug delivery systems across its six global manufacturing locations and add a new manufacturing facility in Europe.

BOXBOROUGH, MA—German contract manufacturer Vibalogics GmbH is investing $150 million and hiring 100 people for a facility here to help Big Pharma develop a COVID-19 vaccine. The company plans to open the site by the second half of 2021.

LONDON–On January 1, 2021, new regulations by the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency in the UK will require medical devices of all classes to be registered with the agency. These regulations may impact the number of approved medical devices in the future.

BEVERLY, MA–Freudenberg Medical has completed construction of a new medical manufacturing facility here that will produce devices and components in medical- and implant-grade silicones, and high-performance plastics.

ROCK HILL, SC–The FDA has provided 510(k) clearance for a patient-specific, 3D-printed instrument set used during ankle replacement surgery with Exactech’s Vantage Total Ankle System.

Fun is the stereotypical appeal of technology to youngsters. But, Heidi Hertel knows that function can sometimes be just as important. Hertel is founder and president of Fitz Frames (FF), which 3D-prints custom eyewear for kids.

Manufacturers of automated machinery often receive requests to feed and orient ordinary plastics caps, but even an ordinary cap can have features that can cause part "behaviors" that present challenges during the feeding process.