Subscribe For Free! Sign up to receive the print magazine six times per year and the e-mail newsletter twice a month. Learn more >
Certain types of cancer are becoming "chronic" diseases and call for changes in packaging, according to Dr. Joseph Gligorov, an oncologist in France. He made these remarks February 6, 2008, at Pharmapack in Paris, France, during a session titled, "Cancer Treatment: The Emerging Role of Packaging." While cancer rates are growing around the world, from 10 million cases diagnosed in 2000 to 15 million projected in 2020, many of these are due to the aging population, people who may also suffer from a variety of other ailments. More than 650 drugs to fight cancer are currently in the pipeline.
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.
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.
To meet the growing demand for pediatric and adult vaccines, GSK is investing more than 500 million euros in a vaccine manufacturing plant to increase production in formulation, filling, freeze-drying, and packaging.
• Model 535 machine is for dosing and closing nested syringes and containers
• for pharma and biotech companies looking to automate and/or validate product filling in clinical trials or development
• handles up to 2,000 containers/hour
Pharma top growth market for flexibles
• Flexible packaging converters ranked pharmaceuticals as the top growth market, with aging baby boomers cited as a key reason for the growth. Medical device packaging was ranked as the ninth-highest flexible packaging growth market.
• The medical and pharmaceutical end-use market accounted for $1.5 billion of the $20.5 billion U.S. flexible packaging pie in 2003.
Package: Duoject’s Inter-Vial is a packaging system that contains, mixes, and injects medicine in a single unit. This medical device-drug package hybrid allows a health professional to reconstitute a lyophilized (freeze-dried) drug by mixing it with a liquid diluent. The drug is then injected, using the same device. The Inter-Vial consists of several intricately molded plastic pieces that have to be snapped or screwed together.
