Air Liquide America to Continue Production of Medical Gases
Air Liquide America Corp. (Houston, Texas) announced on Nov. 13 that it will continue production of medical gases because it has met the certification requirements of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. No facilities will be shut down and the company will continue to supply all of its customers without interruption.
The consent decree provided that Air Liquide America would have been prohibited from manufacturing compressed medical gases until after the instrument analyzers used to test the finished product were validated. Air Liquide America provided this certification to the FDA on October 23, 1997.
"We have proactively met the concerns of the FDA and we are pleased to continue providing quality medical products to the industry," says Bill Donges, senior vice president.
Air Liquide America also set up a medical quality control team responsible for:
- establishing new and higher standards of good manufacturing practices
- establishing and implementing enhanced training for all medical gas personnel
- verifying that all quality control procedures are followed, and
- instituting an audit program for vendors of equipment used for production and distribution of medical gases.
Air Liquide is an international group, specializing in industrial and medical gases as well as associated services; 1996 sales were $6.7 billion. The group supplies oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen and many other gases for industries such as iron and steel, refining, chemicals, glass, electronics, pulp and paper, metallurgy, food, health care and space.