Did You Read Our Most Popular Articles from 2011?

As we celebrate the end of 2011, we'd like to take time to point out the year's top articles on www.pmpnews.com. Following are the articles published this year that drew the most page views.

1. Comfort In Parenteral Delivery

In needle-based injection, cartridge-based pens and prefilled syringes loaded into disposable auto injector devices offer features that support easier self administration by patients. . . . Read More

2. Tube of the Year Awards

By Daphne Allen, Editor

The Tube Council has announced the winners of its 2010 Tube of the Year Awards. An independent panel of judges evaluated nearly two dozen submissions, ranking entries in the following categories: Innovative Tube, Innovative Component/Process, Pharmaceutical, Food, Personal Care, Dentifrice, and Household/Industrial. Judging resulted in one category with two winners, and runners-up and/or special mentions were named in all categories.

Ted Klein Tube of the Year: Most Innovative Tube
Winner: Intuition, manufactured by Montebello Packaging . . . . Read More

3. 2012 GTIN Sunrise and GTIN Allocation Rules for Healthcare

By George Wright IV, PIPS

The Global Trade Item Number is the fundamental product identification key in the GS1 System. Uniqueness at every level of packaging is essential…and soon.

We hear a lot these days about sunrise dates in the global GS1 System of product identification and related supply-chain standards. A sunrise date is a date in the future, agreed to and typically announced years in advance, at which point an industry or market sector is expected to be prepared to implement a specific technology. . . . Read More

4. DuPont Readies Tyvek for the Future

By Daphne Allen, Editor

DuPont Medical Packaging has announced plans to modernize the manufacturing technology behind its longest-standing and most-popular styles of Tyvek. The global manufacturer will transition the manufacturing of Tyvek 1073B and Tyvek 1059B to its latest flash-spinning technology and production lines at its Richmond, VA, and Luxembourg facilities. DuPont Tyvek 2FS and Tyvek Asuron are already produced with the new flash-spinning technology on one of the lines. To help the highly regulated medical device industry shift to materials made on the new lines, DuPont has developed a seven-phase transition plan that includes a Transition Protocol that FDA approved in March. . . . Read More

5. Reduce Costs Smartly

By Daphne Allen, Editor

Pressured to reduce costs, medical device manufacturers should fully understand ISO 11607 requirements and move forward with an educated approach to cost cutting. Medical device manufacturers are often pressed to take costs out of a product over its lifetime, but they cannot risk any threats to quality.

Packaging is often looked at as a source of potential savings, but reductions must be thoroughly vetted. Lapses in packaging can lead to serious product recalls. For instance, in 2010, a few medical device packages with “weak or open seals” and “pin holes and punctures” led to Class 1 recalls, FDA’s most serious type of recall. While we do not suggest that any of these recalls were associated with any cost-cutting measures, we do emphasize the importance of maintaining packaging quality. . . . Read More

Based on your interest, we'll keep tracking these issues and more. If you have any feedback or ideas, please feel free to contact Editor Daphne Allen at daphne.allen@ubm.com or Senior Editor David Vaczek at david.vazek@ubm.com.

Happy New Year!