Yes, the headline could easily apply to this XXL editor, but I was referring to a recent online survey in which Healthcare Packaging readers ranked their most important packaging concerns from a list of more than 40 topics.
The top 10: package design, package testing, compliance packaging, medical device packaging, blister packaging, FDA issues, processing and packaging, anti-counterfeiting, contract packaging, and regulatory issues.
That input is already helping to shape our editorial direction, as evidenced in this issue with our special section on medical device packaging.
Package testing and design are instrumental in shipping sensitive healthcare products through the temperature-controlled supply chain, as was reported at HealthPack 2008 by Ed Church, executive director of the Intl. Safe Transit Assn. (page 23).
Sustainability wasn't one of your top 10 concerns-yet-but market factors continue to drive its significance. A good example is Roche's recent decision to make its Boniva osteoporosis medication packaging more sustainable (page 26). In Roche's case, the green benefits were both financial and environmental.
Your input doesn't end in shaping editorial content. We'd also appreciate your voice in helping to shape the topics and presenters for our third Pharmaceutical Packaging Forum (www.packworld.com/ppf), scheduled for April 14–15, 2009 at the Sheraton Society Hill Hotel in Philadelphia. Thanks to a recent agreement with Pharmintech 2010 in Italy, we will again include an international panel of end-user peers, possibly from Europe, India, China, and the Middle East. PPF attendees and exhibitor-sponsors can count on a strong program covering some of the issues and concerns mentioned in the Healthcare Packaging reader survey mentioned above.
Would you like to see a particular topic addressed, either in the magazine or at our upcoming Pharmaceutical Packaging Forum? Let me know your thoughts at butschli@packworld.com. And now back to addressing that XXL shape...
- Jim Butschli, Editor
