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Interphex Puerto Rico to feature PELS session

Pharmaceutical companies at Interphex Puerto Rico will explore the latest options in Packaging End-of-Line Solutions (PELS) during a special luncheon at the Feb. 1-2 event in San Juan. Register by January 31 to receive free exhibit hall admission. Exhibit hall hours are 1 p.m. to 8 p.m., while conference hours are 9 a.m. to 12:20 p.m.

Interphex Puerto Rico is touted as a pharmaceutical industry source of innovation, education, and professional advancement for a globally important center of drug manufacturing, from process development through delivery to market. It is sponsored by the ISPE and Pharmaceutical Processing magazine.

PELS arose from pharmaceutical packagers seeking ways to streamline their secondary and tertiary packaging operations. They see best practices and best-of-breed, multi-vendor integration as the solution.

PELS will be the subject of a working session on Friday, February 2, from 11:30 am to 1 pm, Meeting Room 104C at the Puerto Rico Convention Center in San Juan.

Defining the issues

The issues crystallized at a PELS briefing in December attended by managers from Pfizer, Merck, Johnson & Johnson and other pharma manufacturers with major installations in Puerto Rico. PELS spokesperson Zorn Momich, president of Z Automation, explained PELS as a coordinated effort on the part of packaging machinery suppliers to provide documentation, training, certification, validation and line integration in a cost-effective, simple, responsive and turnkey offer that plays well with the installed automation base.

These same issues emerged as priorities in the ensuing panel discussion. As a result, attendees urged the PELS group to come back a month later at Interphex to address a larger cross-section of the island's pharmaceutical community.