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Blessings automates its mission

A new induction cap sealer, tablet counter-filler, and labeler help Blessings Intl. more efficiently pack medicines for missions in more than 140 countries.

In the past, Blessings Intl.'s workers hand-sealed lined caps to bottles. The manual pressure exerted onto the cap created an in
In the past, Blessings Intl.'s workers hand-sealed lined caps to bottles. The manual pressure exerted onto the cap created an in

Talk with Dr. Harold Harder and you realize he’s a man on a mission. As president of Blessings International, he’s actually a man on a multitude of international missions. Tulsa, OK-based Blessings is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that provides pharmaceuticals, vitamins, and medical supplies to teams or missions that supply the drugs to clinics and hospitals in developing nations that serve indigent populations. Blessings is also involved in its own benevolent projects that provide pharmaceuticals to locations of special need and/or disaster relief, as well as delivering medicines used by other organizations for their missions.

Blessings’ work was made much easier late last year when it added an Enercon Compak™ Jr. portable induction cap sealer, a Modular Packaging Systems’ MC-2 tablet counter-filler, and a Model R310 semi-automatic labeler from Universal Labeling Systems.

“In any one year, we supply between 70 and 90 countries worldwide with products,” says Harder, who earned a Ph.D in biophysics and a fellowship in pharmacology. “In our 25 years, we’ve shipped to more than 140 countries. Our products are all shipped outside the United States.”

Harder explains that about 95% of these products are solid-dose tablets or capsules, though Blessings does provide some powdered oral suspensions, as well as a limited amount of medical devices, such as stethoscopes, blood pressure cuffs, and surgical scalpel blades. “The majority of the products are generic antibiotics for common ailments,” he notes, “such as upper and lower respiratory infections, skin and urinary tract infections.”

Addressing efficiency

Blessings sources drugs globally, including the purchase of pharmaceuticals in the U.S. Most of the drugs purchased internationally are bought in bulk for economic reasons. Harder estimates that Blessings repackages nearly one-third of its drugs and vitamins. These are filled primarily into bottles at its 5ꯠ-sq’ facility, which the company plans to expand. The organization also outsources some of its packaging. Harder says, “We’ve really gotten more seriously into repackaging in the past year.

“There are only six of us at Blessings,” he notes. “There’s a cost in getting product here, a cost to lease our facility, to pay utilities, and to pay the staff. Blessings markets both purchased and donated pharmaceuticals. Due to the large quantity of a limited number of donated medicines [usually with a short shelf life], we give a large fraction of these donated products to our own projects and to other Christian organizations with which we network that can quickly move the product overseas. To cover our costs of operations, we assess a charge to medical teams requesting medicines. Typically, short-term medical teams select purchased product [with a longer shelf life] for which there is a market.

Pack Expo proves a blessing

To meet its growing repackaging demands, Blessings sought to go from manual packaging to at least a semi-automatic mode. One trip to Pack Expo 2004 in Chicago did the trick.

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