Whippany, NJ-based healthcare contract packager TestPak unveils its child-resistant, senior-friendly line at an October open house. By the end of this year, says TestPak's Bill Eveleth, child-resistant blister packs produced on this new packaging line will be sold commercially in developmental quantities for prescription applications.
Eveleth, TestPak's vice president of sales and marketing, can't divulge specific packages at this point, but he does say, "the products cover a number of therapeutic areas where our customers needed the flexibility to provide child-resistance for an existing blister."
The new line represents the first to use Stora Enso's Pharma SHR packaging system. Stora Enso supplies the tear-resistant paperboard material, while TestPak fills blisters in its packaging lines and provides carton erecting at its site using dedicated equipment from Bosch Packaging.
"This investment reflects TestPak's strategic commitment to compliance packaging," says Eveleth. "The reclosable outer carton provides full F=1 child-resistant performance, which means that package developers now have an unprecedented degree of design flexibility with the internal contents. As a result, there are benefits for user-friendliness, cost-effectiveness, developmental lead-times, and platform consistency." Pharma SHR will be employed by TestPak to produce unit-dose packs such as blister cards, but also for ampoules, vials, syringes, and pouches.
Eveleth says the contract packager supplies peel-away carded blisters, "which are complemented by the new Pharma SHR carton system. We were impressed with the extent of development and clinical testing to back the performance of Pharma SHR.
"As for senior-friendliness," he continues, "the outer carton on its own achieved 100-percent senior-friendly results in a number of clinical tests. We attribute this to the simplicity of the design. However, a major senior-friendly benefit is that there is no further requirement for child-resistant features on the contained blister. The outer carton provides all of the child-resistance, so it is not necessary to redesign or requalify an existing blister."
Asked to justify the financial investment in the system, Eveleth says, "This system complements our range of services and is backed by clinical data, international partners that are market leaders, and state-of-the-art production equipment. Secondly, there are several CR and safety features that make this a highly robust solution, including an anti-pry bar, a dual lock, and moisture-resistance."
- By Jim Butschli, Editor
