A STERILISATION firm based in Swindon is in the midst of a £34 million deal to take over another firm.

If the deal goes ahead, it will create one of the biggest business forces of its kind in Europe.

Isotron, headquartered at the Elgin Industrial Estate, is best known for sterilising medical products on a contract basis.

Its newly-announced proposal is to buy Gammaster, a leading European provider of gamma irradiation sterilisation services.

Isotron chief executive John Barker said: "The acquisition of Gammaster by Isotron creates a multinational group of companies at the forefront of contract sterilisation in Europe.

"This will not only enable the company to provide customers with greater choice and flexibility, but will also provide the critical mass needed to accelerate future cost-effective expansion."

Isotron has nine sets of premises in the UK, Ireland and Malaysia.

As well as sterilising items used in healthcare, its specialities include:

Controlling contamination by microbes in areas such as food packaging, cosmetics and drugs.

Using radiation to modify and improve the properties of polymers, such as those used in cable insulation.

Providing libraries with pathology and microbiology testing services.

Gammaster, which has been in existence for more than 30 years, is one of the largest contract sterilisation providers in continental Europe.

It owns and operates from eight sites two in Sweden and others in the Netherlands, France, Germany, Ireland, South Africa and Thailand.

Isotron plans to raise £18.8 million of the £34 million cost of the deal by putting 8,300,305 New Ordinary Shares at £2.75 each.

The market for sterilising medical products is growing because of continuing demand for the medical products themselves.

This is largely due in turn to the post-war baby boom and advances in medical science producing a larger population of older people than ever before.