Packaging

Dr. Bernhard Hladik from SCHOTT breaks down the delamination phenomenon and describes how pharma manufacturers can effectively fight back.

You have the perfect drug and the right packaging to protect it. All is well until the medication reaches the patient, who habitually pops the tablets into another container for easy storage or leaves them exposed to the atmosphere. Film coatings are more than just a pretty face.

Glass is the most important primary packaging material for injectable drugs, but the demanding requirements of today’s sensitive biologicals mean that we must consider newer, safer alternatives.

Medicine packaging leaders forming the “Matrix Alliance” will bring improved container and closure systems to market.

Translating medicine packaging information for international markets is a major challenge.

The UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has handed out a £37.6 million fine to GSK for paying out “value transfers totaling over 50 million pounds” to competitors between 2001 and 2004 to delay the introduction of generic versions of its branded anti-depressant drug, Seroxat (paroxetine).

Sitting Down With... Diane Paskiet, Director of Scientific Affairs at West Pharmaceutical Services, USA.

Although the discussion about the use of preservatives is still somewhat controversial, clinical evidence suggests that patients benefit from unpreserved eye drops especially in chronic conditions.

Regulators are driving serialization and tamper-evident packaging initiatives, but is the pharma industry fully primed to defend against counterfeits?

The technology has barely changed over the last 30 years – surely, it’s time for some long overdue innovation.