Hosted by Healthcare Packaging and Packaging World magazines, the first Pharmaceutical Packaging Forum featured speakers from Johnson & Johnson, Merck, Schering-Plough, AstraZeneca, the U.S. Department of Commerce, and the Healthcare Users Group. More than 175 people packed The Rittenhouse Hotel in Philadelphia for the March 29 event. The Forum's exhibiting sponsors included Alcoa, Design Group, Bilcare, Rexroth Bosch Group, Intellitech, Parsec, Pharmintech, Uhlmann, United Silicone, and ZPI.
Among the highlights:
• Michael Drues, president and chief technical officer of Vascular Sciences, used audiovisual clips to show recent television reports focusing on innovations in stents and combination products, explaining that packaging and sterilizing such products will be especially challenging.
• Package design experts Richard Gerstman and Herb Meyers initiated some spirited debates with the audience when they reviewed a variety of over-the-counter pharmaceutical packages.
• Rolando Vega, manager of global technical services project management at Schering-Plough, offered a case history-type report on how his company revamped one of its packaging facilities on a budget while complying with Food and Drug Administration requirements.
Watch for more information on the event in Healthcare Packaging's weekly electronic newsletters, and in the Summer 2007 print issue.
--By Jim Butschli, Editor, Healthcare Packaging
