Packaging Trends

Interphex provided an opportunity to examine the latest pharmaceutical packaging concepts and packaging machines.

Bringing Exubera to market requires extensive collaboration by Pfizer, Nektar Therapeutics, West Pharmaceutical Services Tech Group, and Bespak.

PDA's Technical Report No. 39 provides guidance for protecting temperature-sensitive products.

Although patient compliance problems have been receiving attention for at least a decade, many medications are still dispensed in bottles that contain a supply intended to last days or weeks and require considerable effort on the part of the patient or caregiver to keep track of the dosing schedule. As a result, when it comes to consistently taking the right dose at the right time for the duration of a prescription, many consumers don't do a very good job.

Cephalon partners with hardware and software providers to test item-level tagging.

Solid dosage form manufacturers have long relied on shape and color as well as on-pill imprints of logos, product names, or numbers for product identification. But in these days of heightened counterfeiting concerns, the industry has a growing interest in adding more difficult-to-duplicate features to the pool of existing product identification techniques. Added security is particularly important on high-profile or high-cost drugs, as well as on pharmaceutical products supplied in bulk for repackaging.

Most experts recommend layering protective technologies by selecting a combination of overt and covert techniques.

The unit-dose bar coding rule requires integrating many aspects of packaging design and control.

RFID and battery-powered containers are among the developments receiving attention in the pharmaceutical cold chain.

Stakeholders consider ways to improve printed patient inserts.

Particulate generation and durability concerns are encouraging pharmaceutical manufacturers to seek alternatives to wood pallets.

This month's column highlights some of the latest innovations in packaging seen at this year's Interphex conference.

Comprehensive Web sites, journals, and other sources help pharmaceutical makers find packaging-related data quickly and easily.

Drug makers and their suppliers will need good planning and organization to meet the new bar coding requirements for drug products used in hospitals.

Protecting a product from temperature abuse is gaining importance as regulators seek proof of product stability throughout the distribution process.

With new features such as servo-controlled operations and modularity, today's packaging machines offer enhanced flexibility, increased uptime, and reduced product waste.

The process of designing a new drug package must follow specific steps to ensure low costs and rapid market approval.

NIR quality control technology, relatively new to the pharmaceutical industry, could revolutionize processing and packaging.

Manufacturers are gearing up to make labeling chnges required on most over&#173the&#173counter pharmaceutical products.

The latest developments in packaging technology made a strong showing at the 2001 Interphex exhibition.