Making Injectables Safer and Easier to Use

Image of the BD Systeo courtesy BD Medical— Pharmaceutical Systems

Ypsomed (Switzerland), whose Alexander Seibold, MD and PhD, head of diabetes business and medical services, will be speaking at Pharmapack, reports that self-injection is growing, particularly in biotech markets. The focus is on needle safety and disposable systems.

Home healthcare is on the rise, reports another Pharmapack speaker, Mike Schaefers, vice president, marketing, Europe, West Pharmaceutical Services (Germany). As a result, “patients want easy self-administration, especially for daily doses,” he says.

Traditionally, patients have had to use a separate syringe for drugs packaged in vials to reconstitute and/or withdraw contents into the syringe for injection. Change is in order, says Schaefers. “It is easy for patients to make mistakes in reconstitution, or for needles to break.” More.

Pharmapack 2009 will take place at La Grande Halle de la Villette in Paris, at Charlie Parker Hall on Jean Jaurès Avenue. The two-day Pharma-focused packaging event will take place January 21–22, 2009.

La Grande Halle is located in the revitalized northeast sector of Paris, Parc de la Villette. The park is reportedly Paris’s youngest yet largest park, offering visitors further enrichment through museums, music halls, science exhibits, and expansive gardens. Originally built in the 1800s to house cattle, the striking glass-and-cast-iron setting of La Grand Halle now hosts exhibitions and concerts. Nearby hotels will honor special rates for the show, as will others throughout the city. More.

At Pharmapack, Sleever International (Cedex, France) will be celebrating the launch of its two-in-one machine for small-format packaging (3 to 80 ml), the Combisleeve, in booth F08. A pioneer and expert of Sleever technology, Sleever Machines has combined sleeve positioning and shrinkage in a single compact monoblock structure. The high-speed machine—up to 18,000 units/hour—employs vacuum conveyors and specific guiding systems to maintain the stability of small-sized products (16 to 75 mm diam, with minimum heights of 25 mm and a maximum of 150 mm). All available films (PET, OPS, TPE, etc.) can be utilized in thicknesses from 30 to 75 µm. More.