News Life Sciences Packaging a competitive advantage for life sciences industry
Packaging a competitive advantage for life sciences industry
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By Nathan Peck | MiBiz
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WEST MICHIGAN — Game changing medicinal compounds and medical devices grab headlines and provide new revenue sources for life sciences and pharmaceutical companies large and small. Often overlooked is how the delivery devices and packaging innovations play a role in keeping companies competitive in an industry under constant pressure from generic producers.
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For Pfizer Inc.’s Portage operations, innovative packaging has kept the company’s Existing Products division viable and opened up new opportunities for the facility. Innovative packaging has helped keep some products like Solu-Medrol, an injectable steroid, competitive in a marketplace with intensive generic competition from global pharmaceutical companies. The compound is produced and then freeze-dried, keeping it shelf-stable for up to three years. When needed for a patient, sterile water is injected into the compound, making it active for use.
Pfizer’s innovation was to develop the Acti-vial, an hourglass-shaped container with the Solu-Medrol in the bottom, separated with a rubber stopper from sterile water above. When needed, a physician or nurse presses down on the top stopper, forcing the water into the lower chamber. The package reduces the risks of incorrect amounts of water being added to the freeze-dried pharmaceutical, and reduces a step and waste when administering the medicine.
Mark Widman, Senior Manager/Team Leader for the Sterile Injectable Filling department, the third generation of his family to work in Portage on Solu-Medrol production, said the packaging solution is key to the product’s success and longevity.
“It is a complex, innovative solution that keeps an extremely important product (in Pfizer’s portfolio) competitive. It has been a nice competitive advantage in Southeast Asia and Europe. We’ve been able to deliver quite well on innovations that make medical professionals’ lives easier,” Widman said. “Trying to measure out the right amount of water, manage a syringe, needle and measurements to ensure that you get the right amount — it’s not the most useful thing if you’re an EMT on an ambulance treating a patient. It reduces some of the load on the environment, just the one package. Think about the thousands of units that go through each day. It has been a popular product for our customers.”
The product innovation cycle is constantly moving, and other manufacturers have produced similar two-chamber vial designs, and Pfizer has worked to stay ahead of them.
Most sterile water requires preservatives to keep it shelf-stable and sterile, but the company has increased the cleanliness of its production lines to the point where additives aren’t needed. The change came out of recommendations from customers who were becoming concerned about patient sensitivity to additives.
Pfizer is bringing its sales force and production teams closer together to speed an idea from the early stages to pilot, clinical testing and commercial manufacturing.
“We work very closely with our sales team centered in New York. The time between them asking to do something and our ability to respond has come down significantly in the last 10-15 years,” Widman said. “We meet weekly so we can ensure that we can give them what they need.”
As part of the effort to stay at the front of production efficiency, Pfizer is investing $21 million in an upgrade in its Portage facility throughout the summer. The upgraded air-handling space and lab renovations will make the facility more efficient and increase its capabilities.
C.J. Graham, account manager at Creative Foam in Rochester, is helping the company expand its markets into the life sciences industry. Creative Foam started as a supplier of protective packaging for the automotive industry. Today, the company has expanded into the life sciences industry, producing packaging for the cold storage of specimens used by researchers and veterinarians.
“We see increased needs for special packaging for cell transportation for the animal sciences and stem cell research,” Graham said. “We handle the fabricating, did the research, and tapped into NASA for the materials. We work with hundreds of raw materials, bringing in raw materials from around the world. Like this product, customers come to us with an idea and we figure out how to do it. If a raw material does not exist for the application, we will help develop it.”
Creative Foam has worked with its suppliers to develop specialized foam that will keep cell samples in a cryogenic state for a period of 24 hours to 7 days while also keeping the pipettes safe in transit. Keeping samples at a temperature of -135º Celsius and keeping the packaging pliable enough to withstand the jolts and jostles of transportation is no easy feat.
The packaging has been used to transport cells used in vitro fertilization for horses and cattle in developing countries around the world. The customer required traceability and bar coded all of the components in order to monitor shipments all the way from labs in the U.S. through customs to delivery to veterinarians abroad.
“We want to evolve the product into the human stem cells market. A regenerative medical company came to us for bio transportation, a market we had not been involved in before,” Graham said. “We are starting to hear the buzz in Michigan that we are starting to hear more about stem cells.”
As more research dollars flow to West Michigan, Graham sees opportunities to develop a market serving research centers around the state.
“We see this evolving in our area. It is just starting to grow, but we definitely see it becoming a niche market for us,” she said.
