Industry News: Page 291

Healthy prognosis for biologics

Arguably, one of the most promising areas in the healthcare sector is biologics. Biologics-based products and combination products appeal to some pharmaceutical firms not just for their treatment potential, but for their financial prospects, and for their ability to extend patent protection. "There is a lot more patent protection around these [biologics] molecules," says Robert Smith, a director at Genzyme in the U.K. "Proteins and biologics are larger molecules than typical drugs."

February 15, 2008

Pharmaceuticals

Fighting counterfeit drugs: No simple solutions

In the next decade, counterfeit drugs will double, according to Alistair Dand, marketing manager for LGR Emballages, a supplier of folding cartons in France. Currently, one out of every two drugs bought on the internet is a fake. "Counterfeiters are benefiting in developed countries from our desire for lifestyle drugs," said Dand, "and in developing countries from the need for life-saving drugs." Dand offered these remarks February 7, 2008, at Pharmapack in Paris.

February 7, 2008

Packaging/Filling

Medical device packaging training track at MD&M West conference

A medical device packaging track chaired by Randall Troutman (shown in photo), CPP, Oliver Medical Products, will take place from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday, Jan. 28, during the MD&M (Medical Design & Manufacturing) West Conference at the Anaheim Convention Center, Anaheim, CA. MD&M will be co-located with six other manufacturing shows at WestPack.

January 22, 2008

Package Design

Medical device blogger addresses technical questions

Validating heat sealers, dye penetration and burst tests, the consequences of designing packaging late in the product design process, and sterilization issues are among the topics that Jacob Kearns has answered in the past year on his "Medical Device Blog." Kearns is an engineer for a medical device company. Differing points of view may be shared on this blog.

January 9, 2008

Adherence/Delivery

Healthy prognosis for healthcare packaging

Pharmaceutical firms seek packaging line improvements to cut costs, biologics present packaging challenges, and medical device growth is driven by aging baby boomers. These treatment advances bode well for the healthcare/life sciences packaging community. Packaging materials need to offer protection from point of manufacture to the "last mile" where healthcare products reach a patient. Packaging materials must provide barriers for moisture, oxygen, light and heat, and they may include overt and/or covert security measures to combat counterfeiting and diversion. Equipment will need to package products more efficiently, be validatable and versatile.

December 25, 2007

Adherence/Delivery

Pharmaceutical Packaging Forum, Pharmintech 2010 reach agreement

Healthcare Packaging and Packaging World, producers of the Pharmaceutical Packaging Forum, and Ipack-Ima Spa, organizers of Pharmintech, announce a cooperative agreement in which Healthcare Packaging and Packaging World will offer promotional support to Ipack-Ima Spa, increasing the visibility for their Italian trade event, Pharmintech, to the U.S. pharmaceutical market. Pharmintech, held every three years in Italy, will next take place May 12th -14th, 2010 in Bologna, Italy.

November 7, 2007

Packaging/Filling

Brecon betters blister packing

Nowhere in packaging are flexibility and fast changeover more necessary than in the contract-packaging arena, where multiple customers and their many SKUs are a fact of life. That’s why ease of changeover was a key machine characteristic sought by Brecon Pharmaceuticals recently when it came time to install a new line for blister packing and cartoning of tablets. This fast-growing contract packager, acquired last year by Amerisource Bergen, is located in the UK near the town of Brecon, Wales. Both thermoforming and cold-forming of foil are routinely done on this new and highly versatile blister-pack line.

October 29, 2007

Adherence/Delivery

Wyeth, Teva speakers to address ISPE annual meeting

Wyeth's Charlie Portwood and Teva Global Generic Resource's Uri Boneh will serve among the keynote speakers at The International Society for Pharmaceutical Engineering's (ISPE) annual meeting Nov. 4 - 7 at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. The event will feature more than 40 sessions, with topics including packaging, product quality lifecycle implementation, pandemic flu preparedness, personalized medicine, nanotechnology, disposables, and project management.

October 24, 2007

Packaging/Filling

Views of a UK contract drug packager

In this question-and-answer interview, Andrew Billington (shown), operations manager at Brecon Pharmaceuticals in Wales, addresses recent trends in packaging. What is he looking for in new packaging machinery? Billington says: "Quicker changeover and anything that facilitates GMPs [Good Manufacturing Practices] are at the top of the list. Both are especially important for a contract packager because our runs can be quite short. Added changeover pressure can also come from the multiple languages we deal with here in Europe. That’s something our counterparts in the United States do not have to face."

October 22, 2007

Adherence/Delivery

New law to require individual Rx pack numbering

A new law that was widely described as strengthening Food and Drug Administration powers over approved drugs contains a spotlight on packaging that, among other things, will soon require unique numbering of individual packages of prescription drug products. In the FDA Amendments Act of 2007, little-noticed section 913 adds a new section to the law called "Pharmaceutical Security" that calls for federal government officials to "develop standards and validate effective technologies" to secure the drug supply chain against "counterfeit, diverted, subpotent, substandard, adulterated, misbranded, or expired drugs."

October 19, 2007

Nutraceuticals/Dietary

FDA hopes new supplement regulations will assure quality

If cGMPs do their job right, then dietary supplements will be packaged and labeled correctly.

October 12, 2007

Regulatory

California ePedigree update

A call for RFID pilots was heard from the California Board of Pharmacy at the EPC conference held in early October in Chicago.

October 12, 2007

Page 291 of 303

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