West Pharmaceutical Services Inc 's

We compete with several companies across our Proprietary Products product lines. Due to the special nature of our pharmaceutical packaging components and our long-standing participation in the market, competition for these components is based primarily on product design and performance, although total cost is becoming increasingly important as pharmaceutical companies continue with aggressive cost-control programs across their operations.

In addition, there is a small number of competitors supplying medical devices and medical device components. We compete in this market on the basis of our reputation for quality and reliability in engineering and project management, as well as our knowledge of, and experience in, compliance with regulatory requirements.

We also have specialized knowledge of container closure components, which is integral to developing delivery systems. With our range of proprietary technologies, we compete with new and established companies in the area of drug delivery devices, including suppliers of prefillable syringes, auto-injectors, safety needles and other proprietary systems.

We differentiate ourselves from our competition by being an integrated drug containment and delivery systems global supplier that can provide pre-approval primary packaging support and engineering development, analytical services, regulatory expertise and after-sale technical support. Customers also appreciate the global scope of our manufacturing capability and our ability to produce many products at multiple sites.

Our Contract-Manufactured Products business operates in very competitive markets for its products. The competition varies from smaller regional companies to large global molders. Given the cost pressures they face, many of our customers look off-shore to reduce cost. We differentiate ourselves by leveraging our global capability and by employing new technologies such as high-speed automated assembly, insert-molding, multi-shot molding and expertise with multiple-piece closure systems.