Your source for news, trends and analysis of pharmaceuticals, biologics, medical devices, and nutraceuticals.

Watson Laboratories’ Glipizide Key.In package won the 2007 Compliance Package of the Year award from the Healthcare Compliance Packaging Council . The package, a unique carded wallet, is manufactured by Nosco for Watson Laboratories. The pack functions with a removable key card that must be inserted into a lock in order to access the blisters within.

David Howard (shown), director product protection global brand integrity at Johnson & Johnson, spoke about how to implement a brand-protection program. “The first step in any organization is to know thyself,” Howard advised. “Where are your products made? How do you distribute? Where do you market? Are you local? Regional? Global? Who touches your products?” Without detailed answers to such questions, solutions being considered or the ones already being implemented may be misguided, Howard told the audience at the first Brand-Protection Packaging Forum.

More is going on in RFID apart from news of the decision by the California Board of Pharmacy to delay requirement for e-pedigree tracking of drugs until 2011. RFID analysts from ABI Research commented about RFID developments and drivers in pharmaceutical markets. Analyst Peter Poorman (shown here) says the current state of affairs in RFID is typical to that of many technologies. "After a period of excitement and then a period of disappointment, there follows a period of adoption on an upward ramp. I think we’re at the beginning of that ramp with RFID."

Brand managers of healthcare products are beginning to use words like “efficacy” when discussing packaging options for their products—a sign that they view packaging as more than a carrier of the product. In the muscle pain-relief aisle, packaging reflects this elevated status for Mentholatum Co. Inc.’s WellPatch brand of treatment patches. Competition in the pain-relief category is increasing, and it created the need for a package redesign for WellPatch.

Packaged wet wipes give hospital personnel and patients a weapon to fight the spread of bacteria. Sustainable packaging of these wipes could be next. ...The healthcare community is understandably concerned with the spread of diseases such as MRSA (Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus), or staph, and C. Diff (Clostridium Difficile), a diarrheal disease. One way to combat such diseases, either in a medical facility or at home, is through hygiene, which may include the use of specialized wet wipes, contract-manufactured and packaged by Fredonia, WI-based Guy & O’Neill, Inc. for a wide range of customers and applications.

Synchronized lines, rather than individual pieces of equipment, will be a focus of pharmaceutical manufacturers, predicts PMMI’s Ben Miyares. In this exclusive Q&A interview with Healthcare Packaging, Miyares addresses multiple healthcare packaging-related issues, including mechatronics and robotics, which, he says, "have the potential to transform the development of packaging equipment." He also looks at sustainability, packaging equipment purchase considerations, E-machinery, and counterfeiting topics.

Packaging plays an important role in every category but nowhere is it more important than in over-the-counter products whose impact on a consumer’s health and well-being occurs at a very personal level. Issues such as selecting the correct product at the shelf, understanding correct dosing, dispensing the correct amount of product, storing it and protecting it while consumers are “on-the-go” underscores packaging’s importance. New developments occur continuously. Monitoring them and aligning them with your product and consumer needs will substantially increase the value of your brand and add to your company’s top-line sales and bottom-line profit growth.

In the next decade, counterfeit drugs will double, according to Alistair Dand, marketing manager for LGR Emballages, a supplier of folding cartons in France. Currently, one out of every two drugs bought on the internet is a fake. “Counterfeiters are benefiting in developed countries from our desire for lifestyle drugs," said Dand, "and in developing countries from the need for life-saving drugs." Dand offered these remarks February 7, 2008, at Pharmapack in Paris.

In addition to its shrink-sleeved canister format launched in early 2007 and sold at Costco, San Francisco, CA-based Bevology also developed a tube format for its effervescent Zenergize supplements. Introduced in September 2007 and sold in cartons, the products retail in seven varieties at Whole Foods, Walgreens, and Vitamin Shoppe stores nationally and in Los Angeles-area Longs and Ralphs stores. Each is priced at $6.99 for one variety of 10 all-natural servings.

In March 2007, to repackage its well-established “Skinlogics Lip Apeel” lip line peel/lip balm product, Carrollton TX-based BeautiControl, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Tupperware Brands, opted for injection-molded styrene acrylonitrile/polypropylene jars with stacked-component construction, custom-manufactured by TricorBraun .

Pharmaceutical firms seek packaging line improvements to cut costs, biologics present packaging challenges, and medical device growth is driven by aging baby boomers. These treatment advances bode well for the healthcare/life sciences packaging community. Packaging materials need to offer protection from point of manufacture to the “last mile” where healthcare products reach a patient. Packaging materials must provide barriers for moisture, oxygen, light and heat, and they may include overt and/or covert security measures to combat counterfeiting and diversion. Equipment will need to package products more efficiently, be validatable and versatile.

When cosmetic product labels tout benefits similar to those of drugs, there’s likely to be trouble. ...When is a cosmetic not a cosmetic? When it’s a drug. A review of Food and Drug Administration Warning letters for the last few years reveals some of the alleged problems involved in the marketing of cosmetics.

Healthcare Packaging and Packaging World, producers of the Pharmaceutical Packaging Forum, and Ipack-Ima Spa, organizers of Pharmintech, announce a cooperative agreement in which Healthcare Packaging and Packaging World will offer promotional support to Ipack-Ima Spa, increasing the visibility for their Italian trade event, Pharmintech, to the U.S. pharmaceutical market. Pharmintech, held every three years in Italy, will next take place May 12th -14th, 2010 in Bologna, Italy.

Health Resources LLC of Hueytown, AL, was established in 1995 as a manufacturer of natural health supplements available by mail order. Today, the company offers more than 400 different SKUs, with products that promote a range of health solutions, including joint relief, heart health, reduced inflammation, and better digestion, among many others. In March, the company began running six AirPouch™ Express 3 air-pouch void-fill systems from Automated Packaging Systems to protect its bottles of product during shipment. The switch to air-pouch void-fill systems from loose-fill peanuts increases productivity, lessens mess, and reduces costs.

Nowhere in packaging are flexibility and fast changeover more necessary than in the contract-packaging arena, where multiple customers and their many SKUs are a fact of life. That’s why ease of changeover was a key machine characteristic sought by Brecon Pharmaceuticals recently when it came time to install a new line for blister packing and cartoning of tablets. This fast-growing contract packager, acquired last year by Amerisource Bergen, is located in the UK near the town of Brecon, Wales. Both thermoforming and cold-forming of foil are routinely done on this new and highly versatile blister-pack line.

If you are a packager of dietary supplements, you may have a strong reaction to the new Food and Drug Administration regulations setting current Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMP) requirements for these products. These regulations were announced by the FDA in late June and can be found in 21 CFR Part 111.1 – 111.610. As a maker of these products, you might welcome the level playing field among supplement companies that these new manufacturing controls can bring, as well as the higher consumer confidence in products of this type that may follow from more consistent quality. Or, you may resent the rules’ irritating new burdens in procedures and record keeping.

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. Produced by Healthcare Packaging and Packaging World magazines, the event will be held on Wednesday, March 12, 2008 at The Rittenhouse Hotel in Philadelphia, the same venue that hosted the initial PPF March 29, 2007.

A polypropylene container that includes a no dip-tube dispensing pump provides waste-free dispensing and fits within a reusable outer SAN container, helping Malibu Wellness, Inc. market its EC Mode skin-care products to salons, spas, and dermatologists. Malibu continues to take pride in staying in front of the curve when it comes to healthy skin care. So it's no surprise that the company is pioneering a reusable pack in the U.S. cosmeceutical market just when sustainable packaging has become so prominent.

Pharmaceutical innovation and development represents an important aspect of the Latin American economy, with sales of US$24 billion in 2005, up 18.5-percent from 2004. Mexico, Brazil and Argentina are three largest markets in the region, and were responsible for more than 80-percent of the region’s sales in 2005. That’s according to InfoAmericas, a conductor of research and business intelligence across Latin America and the Caribbean. In 2005, the combined annual growth rate of the top seven markets in the region reached 7-percent.

The Food & Drug Administration’s new current good manufacturing practices (CGMPs) for dietary supplements are rich in requirements related to packaging and labeling. A decade in the making, the CGMP rule, compliance with which will be phased in according to size of company, sets minimum standards for assembly-line contact surfaces, packaging and labeling equipment, inspection of packaging received from suppliers, relations with third-party packagers, personnel hygiene on the packaging line and much more, all within the context of forcing the industry—some of which may already be in compliance—to adopt the kind of CGMPs that the FDA has prescribed for food and drugs.

In mid-March 2007, Caldwell, NJ-based marketing and distribution company The Stratis Group joined forces with Brooklyn, NY contract manufacturer Victoria Packing Corp. to launch a health supplement called “Hilo Gold Noni Juice” in health food outlets in Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, New Jersey, New York, and Connecticut.

July 20, 2007 is the deadline for presentations to be made at Interphex 2008 and at HealthPack 2008. Interphex 2008 will be held March 26 – 28, 2008 at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia. HealthPack 2008 will take place March 4-6 at the Sheraton Gunter Hotel in San Antonio, TX.

At this year’s Interphex conference and exhibition event in New York, the Healthcare Compliance Packaging Council (HCPC) selected its 2006 Compliance Package of the Year awards. The PocketPak (shown) earned package of the year honors. Reportedly used in England by Boots Pharmacies, PocketPak uses a patented design developed by Burgopak and Structural Graphics.

When Sageant, LLC, Bozeman, MT, a health supplement and vitamin producer, wanted to re-brand and refresh its product image, the company sought the assistance of branding and design agency Maddocks & Co. In the process of designing new labels and recommending PVC shrink-sleeve label materials for the various liquid and solid Sageant products in assorted container sizes and shapes, Maddocks also enlisted the digital printing expertise of CL&D Digital to execute the shrink-sleeve label printing. The 2-mil PVC shrink-sleeve label material, manufactured by Klockner Pentaplast , is digitally printed by CL&D using a four-color process.

Tumi, Inc. is selling a kit for airline passengers that offers spill-proof bottles in a zippered bag. New York City-based Tumi uses O.Berk Co. PET bottles for its newest product, the Carry-On Essentials Kit. It is a response to the Transportation and Security Administration’s (TSA) latest restrictions on what passengers can take with them aboard airplanes.

Aluminum can lends shelf appeal for New Sun Nutrition's reformulated Free Radical Scavenging (FRS) beverages. In February, New Sun Nutrition's CEO Richard Lamb announced, "Since the launch of FRS in 2004, we have continued to fine-tune the product and are proud to introduce a great-tasting, improved formula in addition to an eye-catching new recyclable can for the ready-to-drink format." The aluminum can with pull tab from Rexam (www.rexam.com) offers a one-year shelf life for the beverage that requires no refrigeration. New Sun Nutrition says the shelf life exceeds that of the plastic bottle that this can replaced.

At the Pharmaceutical Packaging Forum, Attorney Eric F. Greenberg revealed key Food and Drug Administration issues pertaining to healthcare packaging. Among them were drug safety, inspections, cGMPs, labeling of prescription and OTC drugs, and how a unique coalition came together last year to lobby for more FDA funding.

Schering-Plough has repositioned its Coricidin brand as the preferred choice for cold sufferers with high blood pressure, and packaging supports the strategy.

In pharmaceutical firms and consumer-packaged goods companies in general, packaging may be the last place in the corporation that has not been Six-Sigma’d to death. Companies have been looking for ways to squeeze time and cost out of the manufacturing process and they’ve finally arrived at packaging’s door. In this article, Kent St. Vrain of Paxonix reports on Six Sigma benefits, economic justification, and streamlining the process of getting product more quickly to market.

A PET bottle and shrink-sleeve label help start-up company DTK launch a relief drink for “the day after” called AH+. AH+ (After Hours+) is an appropriate name for a vitamin-fortified water designed to help relieve hangover symptoms associated with drinking too much alcohol. Introduced last July, the three 16.9-oz AH+ varieties are filled into 23-g injection-blown PET bottles provided by O.Berk.

The Freedonia Group forecasts that sales demand for high-visibility packaging in the pharmaceutical and medical markets will advance 7.9% annually to $1.9 billion by 2010. The organization refers to high-visibility packaging as packaging that allows consumers to see the product through the packaging. These include windowed boxes and bags, carded blister packs, skin packaging, and interlocking containers.

Merix Pharmaceutical Corp. switched its retail packaging for Releev 1 Day Cold Sore Symptom Treatment to BlisterGuard security package from Colbert Packaging to thwart tampering and pilferage and meet retailer demands.

Merix Pharmaceutical Corp. switched its retail packaging for Releev 1 Day Cold Sore Symptom Treatment to the BlisterGuard security package from Colbert Packaging to thwart tampering and pilferage and meet retailer demands. This new format introduced last September is now used nationwide at Walgreens and Kmart stores, with expanded retail distribution planned throughout 2007.

Drug delivery devices, advances in combination products, and biologics/biopharmaceuticals will present both challenges and opportunities for packagers. New packages and drug delivery methods for over-the-counter (OTC) drugs, nutraceutical and cosmeceutical products are appearing on retail drug and grocery store shelves. (Part II of II)

The packagers of over-the-counter drugs (OTC) and dietary supplements will soon need to label their products with contact information to allow consumers to report possible injuries or illnesses. The packagers, in turn, will have to report serious adverse events to the Food and Drug Administration, and keep records of the events. The law goes into effect one year from President Bush's recent signature.

--By Eric Greenberg, Attorney-at-Law

According to a report posted on DrugResearcher.com , the Government Accounting Office has warned the pharmaceutical industry that although their investment in research and development has increased 147% between 1993 and 2004, New Drug Applications have only risen 38%.