The Awards honor innovations in drug delivery and packaging, for better patient safety and compliance.
The winners of the 2018 Pharmapack Awards were announced on Wednesday, Feb. 7, 2018. Six winners were chosen across categories, ‘Exhibitor Innovation’ and ‘Health Products’.
In the Exhibitor Innovation category, the three winners were Biocorp, West Pharmaceutical Services, and sfm medical devices.
Biocorp received the Exhibitor Innovation award for “Patient safety and convenience” for Onejet, the first motor-driven disposable autoinjector, compatible with standard primary containers (prefilled syringes from 1 mL to 2.25 mL), designed to easily deliver high-viscosity products.
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West Pharmaceutical Services won the Exhibitor Innovation award for “Ease-of-use and patient compliance” for its SelfDose Patient-Controlled Injector, which is a simple two-step operation, designed to make administration far easier for patients with dexterity challenges. The patient only has to remove the cap and press against the skin to deliver a subcutaneous injection. Audible and visual end-of-dose indicators confirm successful administration of the prescribed dose.
Nextaro by sfm medical devices GmbH was bestowed the Exhibitor Innovation award for “Patient centricity and customization.” Nextaro is the quality benchmark for reconstitution of lyophilized pharmaceutical components. The product works using a patented screw system and optimizes handling through the use of two plastic components. This construction is especially suitable for people with physical disabilities.
Because of the breadth of innovations within this category, the judges felt compelled to commend a list of “Top 10 Innovators.” The other seven innovators included in the list were: Perlen Converting AG’s Perlamed-Blistair; Gerresheimer’s Gx InnoSafe; Nemera’s e-Advancia; Schott AG’s iQ; Baswen’s Pharma Adherence IoT Pack; Cambridge Design Partnership’s Dialog User Insights Research Toolkit, and Plastifrance’s Just’Adose pipette.
In the Health Product category, three winners were UCB Pharma, GSK Consumer Health and Laboratoires Virbac.
The Cimzia Pack of 2 AutoClicks Prefilled Pens by UCB Pharma was recognized for its packaging system that improves patient compliance in rheumatoid arthritis patients and those with hand dexterity issues. The pen has a button-free delivery system and a wide non-slip grip, with new elements that help to improve patient compliance including a large viewing window and a clicking sound at the start and end of a full dose injection.
GSK Consumer Health’s Voltaren no-mess applicator was recognized for its improvements in patient hygiene and adherence. The packaging enables consumers to directly apply the pain relief gel without having to touch it, which is both more practical and hygienic as consumers do not have to wash their hands post-application.
Laboratoires Virbac was awarded for its All in One Contactless Multidose Delivery Cap, the only “all-in-one” solution for the application of liquid products for both animal and human health markets.
Anne Schumacher, brand director at Pharmapack Europe commended all the winners, highlighting that their innovations demonstrated excellence in drug delivery, packaging, and automation for better patient safety and compliance. “For the past 21 years, Pharmapack has been devoted to showcasing the most outstanding, cutting-edge innovations in the pharmaceutical packaging sector, from the products highlighted through to the content sessions. The exceptional calibre of this year’s entries echoes our core theme of pushing technology to its limits to ultimately improve patients’ lives, and is a direct reflection of how the wider industry is advancing,” Schumacher.