Sterigenics International, provider of contract sterilization, gamma technologies and medical isotopes, today announced that it has acquired Sao Paulo-based Companhia Brasileira de Esterilização (CBE), the largest specialist in sterilization and microbial load reduction in Latin America.

Founded in 1978, CBE was the first company to employ gamma sterilization methods in Brazil, and offers solutions through the largest particle accelerator (E-BEAM) in Latin America.

In 2014, a Sterigenics affiliate acquired Nordion, the world's largest provider of Cobalt-60, an isotope that produces gamma radiation and is a critical component of the gamma sterilization process, creating the only vertically integrated sterilization services company in the world.

Additional acquisitions in 2014 included Florida-based gamma irradiation operator FTSI, as well as Gammarad, Italy's leading gamma irradiation sterilization company, which now serves as the company's second gamma sterilization facility in Western Europe.

"CBE brings three facilities into our network with a total processing capacity of 12 million cubic feet. With the addition of CBE we now offer six locations for processing in Latin America, including sites in Costa Rica and Mexico," said Mr Philip Macnabb, president, Sterigenics.