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Three major healthcare stakeholders are among the speakers who will deliver presentations April 8 in Chicago at the Brand-Protection Packaging Forum, which is produced by Packaging World magazine. Global marketing director Akan Oton (shown in photo) of Catalent Pharma Services will share details of an ambitious implementation of a track-and-trace solution based on 2D bar codes that is designed to meet California's e-pedigree requirements.
A cloud of uncertainty hangs over the pharmaceutical industry in Puerto Rico following the expiration of tax incentives from Section 936 of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code. Could emerging combinations of biopharmaceuticals and medical devices provide a silver lining? A report from Interphex Puerto Rico.
There exists “a great deal of misinformation” when it comes to accelerated aging of medical device packaging, said Curt Larsen of Spartan Design Group, LLC (952/380-1458), at the January 28 MD&M (Medical Design & Manufacturing) West Medical Device Packaging Conference in Anaheim, CA.
Attending the yearly HealthPack conference is an important educational opportunity for the medical device community, agree John Spitzley (shown in photo) and Curt Larsen, the event’s co-chairmen who developed the agenda for the March 4 – 6 event at the Sheraton Gunter Hotel in San Antonio. “At HealthPack 2008, the keynote speaker will be Mary Jo Steiert, president of AORN, the Assn. of periOperative Registered Nurses,” says Larsen.
A medical device packaging track chaired by Randall Troutman (shown in photo), CPP, Oliver Medical Products, will take place from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday, Jan. 28, during the MD&M (Medical Design & Manufacturing) West Conference at the Anaheim Convention Center, Anaheim, CA. MD&M will be co-located with six other manufacturing shows at WestPack.
A new course, Packaging Line Performance Workshop, will give packagers the skills, tools, and knowledge they require to improve the efficiency of their packaging lines. Produced by Packaging World, the two-day intensive workshop teaches attendees the fundamentals of packaging line performance improvement. Attendees will learn how to measure OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness) on their packaging lines, and will come away with practical experience to put to immediate use.
Wyeth’s Charlie Portwood and Teva Global Generic Resource’s Uri Boneh will serve among the keynote speakers at The International Society for Pharmaceutical Engineering’s (ISPE) annual meeting Nov. 4 – 7 at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. The event will feature more than 40 sessions, with topics including packaging, product quality lifecycle implementation, pandemic flu preparedness, personalized medicine, nanotechnology, disposables, and project management.
Packaging Hall of Fame inductee Edward J. Bauer, investigative reporter and award-winning author Katherine Eban, and Joint Equipment Transition Team (JETT) Chairman Jim John are among the speakers scheduled to make presentations at the upcoming Pharmaceutical Packaging Forum (PPF) 2008.
If ex-lifeguard Christine Doolittle has her way, patients who are unconscious or not breathing may one day be rescued thanks in part to an easy-to-access prefilled syringe pack she developed as a prototype last year while earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in Industrial Design from the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) in Savannah, GA. The package is not being sold commercially. The prototype was developed as part of a Design Initiative between SCAD and Eastman.
A Pack Expo scholarship winner, recent RIT packaging science graduate Jennifer Yager is eager to dive into the challenges of a career in pharmaceutical or medical device packaging.
The second Pharmaceutical Packaging Forum will be held March 12, 2008 at Philadelphia's Rittenhouse Hotel, the same site that hosted the sold-out initial PPF in March, 2007. Sponsored by Healthcare Packaging and Packaging World magazines, this year's PPF will include conference presentations, networking opportunities, and exhibits.
Presenters from Merck, Schering-Plough, and Cardinal Health will help Summit Publishing launch the Pharmaceutical Packaging Forum 2007, scheduled at the Rittenhouse Hotel in Philadelphia Thursday, March 29, 2007.
At last month’s International Society for Pharmaceutical Engineers (ISPE) 25th Annual Meeting in Phoenix, AZ, keynote speaker David Pulman, president of global manufacturing and supply at GlaxoSmithKline, stated that our society “has to better educate people, train them, then continue that education in the workplace.”
Genetech Inc.’s vice president of global quality, Ronald Branning, raised more than a few eyebrows at the event by saying, “last year, China graduated 600,000 engineers. In the United States, that number was 70,000. We need to stimulate engineering.”
Three keys to building quality into your packaging operation
Recently, the Food and Drug Administration issued a draft guidance* on quality systems. Within this guidance document is the following statement: “Quality should be built into the product, and testing alone cannot be relied on to ensure product quality.”
The three keys to building quality into your packaging operation are as follows:
1. Technical experts. Technical experts must design, qualify, and maintain the packaging operation. They must have a thorough understanding of the product, the package, and the regulatory requirements.
2. Documentation. Maintain documentation generated by the technical experts in an organized filing system. These files must be easily accessible for the completion of compliance functions such as Corrective and Preventive Action (CAPA) and Change Control. In addition, the documentation utilized during packaging should include steps to minimize the risk of contamination and mix-ups within your packaging operation.
