Combination product packaging concerns

Combining a medical device with a pharmaceutical to create a drug delivery device (like drug-eluting stents) is fraught with problems, yet it's a great opportunity for both the device company and the pharmaceutical firm. Devices often perform better, with increased patient compliance and improved medical outcomes. Pharmaceutical companies capitalize on the chance to take less profitable off-patent drugs and reintroduce them in a new way. Often the smaller medical device firm has to turn to its big pharma partners for help with funding, Food and Drug Administration (FDA) compliance, and so on. Not only is the road to launching a new product longer, tougher, and more expensive, the actual application of the drug onto the device remains a difficult proposition at full production speeds. Virtual design programs are helping medical device firms conceive new products much more efficiently. Doctors call for more devices to be MRI-compatible, often dictating a change in materials.