Medical Device Link.

CARTONING AND LABELING

Cartopac cartoners from Oystar IWK feature a rotary carton feeder unit for gentle carton handling.

As packaging is tasked with supporting patient education and product marketing, drug industry interest in evolved carton and label styles is at high pitch.

Carton manufacturing requirements may include extended panel configurations and improved handling to ensure package quality. Machines are capable of making ever-larger inserts, and folding them to smaller sizes to fit in smaller package footprints. Large volumes of text are accommodated by 20-plus-page extended-content booklets.

Jones Packaging Inc. (London, ON, Canada) has developed a sample package for Altabax (retapamulin ointment), an antibacterial drug from GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) for treating impetigo, that presents patient information accessibly and assists the doctor in explaining the drug’s use and application.

B. Braun Melsungen AG adopted the All-In-One label from Schreiner MediPharm (Oberschleissheim, Germany) for the relaunch of a cryoanesthetic spray for treating skin diseases in 12 European countries. The two-ply, three-page, resealable “Euro-Label” provides sufficient space for meeting the required printing of user information in 12 languages.

Extra carton panels have been a favored option for accommodating patient information, says Paul Glintenkamp, director of pharmaceutical packaging, Carton Service Inc.—Packaging Insights (Norris, TN). And the converter and contract packager met growing demand for clear plastic windows with a recent investment in a high-speed windowing machine.

The machine increases windowed-carton production at least tenfold from older technology used. “Customers recognize the billboard advantage that cartons provide in OTC packaging, and they don’t want to give up shelf space,” Glintenkamp says. “They are often in the market for metallized and UV inks and raised impressions to make packaging pop out on the shelf.”

Carton Manufacture

The “Euro-Label” from Schreiner MediPharm provides patient instructions in 12 languages for a B. Braun anesthetic spray.

Carton Service designed a carton with a fold-out panel and window that exposes the tablets for packaging Merz Pharmaceutical’s Appearex nail treatment. The blister line features a cartoner from Oystar USA (Fairfield, NJ) that eliminates the need for fixed tooling. Blister magazines are flexibly configured in 15 minutes for handling different blister sizes.

Glintenkamp says Carton Service has seen more demand for kitting for consolidating treatment system components. These cartons feature partitions for holding multiple doses, containers used for treatment preparation, and literature. Carton Service produced a kit for a month’s supply of a prescription drug that requires refrigeration at the pharmacy and patient’s home, with tear-off partitions separating a week’s worth of medication.

Cartopac cartoners from Oystar IWK (formerly IWKA PacSystems) support careful handling when cartons are fed into the machine by employing a unique rotary carton feed, with an opposing vacuum that squares cartons prior to placement into the carton transport chain.

Bernie Conlon, president, Oystar USA, Pharmaceutical Packaging Division, says that gentle handling is becoming more of an issue for pharmaceutical and medical device firms aiming to ensure the look and feel of packaging for products marketed directly to consumers. Cartopac units feature 100% carton opening before placement into the lugs.

A booklet-style folder developed by Jones Packaging for sampling Altabax features a peel-off label to assist doctor prescribing.

“With most rotary carton feeds, the flat stock is squared by the trailing lug of the carton transport chain,” Conlon says. “While this works most of the time, occasionally the carton is merely knocked off the suction head, creating a jam. This is even more of a problem at higher speeds.”

“Our rotary carton infeed has a preopening system, consisting of mechanically driven fingers that gently open the carton prior to inserting into the transport chain,” he adds. “This guarantees that the carton will be opened each time, regardless of the transport speed.”

Cartopac cartoners support quick glue, to tuck changeover, and automatic chain tensioning. A self-teaching HMI/MMI touch screen interface provides on-line machine diagnostics, and allows toolless changeovers in less than 10 minutes. Intermittent and continuous-motion models support speed ranges of 60–600 cartons per minute.

Helping the Patient

Octapharma adopted Schreiner MediPharm’s Pharma-Tac integrated hanger and label system for bottles of blood plasma.

Jones Packaging’s sample package for GSK’s Altabax displays patient information without the need for a separate paper insert, and incorporates a prescription requisition for the physician.

The patient information and a tube-shaped sachet containing one to two applications are presented on three inside panels of a booklet-style folder. The folder design assists doctors in explaining the drug’s use, with panels featuring tips for patients on wound care and hygiene, and a step-by-step graphic on applying the medication from the trade package.

A removable prescription label with a peel-tab (developed by Jones Packaging) fixed to the front of the folder makes it easier for the doctor to prescribe in a requisition format less subject to misinterpretation by the pharmacist. “All the doctor has to do is check off the prescription strength, affix to the requisition, and sign,” says Fred Nichols, business development manager.

Featuring eye-catching Altabax colors and a bold logo, the carton is op­timally sized. It fits compactly in a purse, yet is somewhat larger than a normal sample package to dissuade physicians from dispensing multiple samples to individuals, and ultimately reaching more patients, says Nichols.

Besides creating a premium look, foil stamping enabled the reading of EAS tags in a carton Jones Packaging developed for Listerine Whitening strips.

Jones Packaging lithographs, die-cuts, and glues the cartons, plus prints and die-cuts the labels, applying the prescription label at the folding and gluing stage in-line. GSK manually inserts the filled sachets, closes the carton, and packs them in a six-carton display supplied by Jones Packaging.

The Altabax sample pack won a 2008 Excellence Award from the Paper Board Packaging Council (PBPC), while the “piggyback” peel-release prescription label earned a PBPC Inno­vation Excellence Award.

Jones Packaging garnered a second PBPC Excellence Award for a carton developed for Listerine Whitening Strips by Pfizer Consumer Healthcare (now Johnson & Johnson).

The carton features a rainbow hologram pattern with colors that shift depending on the viewed angle, which provides a premium look and dynamic shelf presence. Use of foil board, however, presented an obstacle, as a package completely enclosed by foil prevented reading of electronic article surveillance (EAS) radio-frequency (RF) tags.

The converter proposed flat stamping three panels with the holographic foil, leaving the back panel void of foil. “The client was using two types of antitheft tags that retailers required, RF (Checkpoint) and acoustomagnetic (Sensormatic) tags. As a solution for reducing inventory, we suggested a dual-tag that accommodates both technologies,” says Nichols.

The flat stamping also reduces material costs, and supports recycling, as the foil is applied to the carton’s main and two side panels. “Flat stamping allowed the use of conventional glues and gluing process, plus the foil-free die-cut waste can be recycled. For flawless lithoprinting, the foil has to be applied perfectly flat, without indents, rough edges, or depressions,” Nichols adds.

Jones supplies the side-seam and interior-cell glued carton, with applied EAS tag. The client erects the carton, glues the bottom, packages 56 teeth-whitening strips along with a product information leaflet, fold-closes the top, and overwraps the package.

New Label Styles

Schreiner MediPharm Pharma-Combo peel-off labels ease caregiver documentation.

Schreiner MediPharm, headquartered in Oberschleissheim, near Munich, offers extended-label space in its Pharma-Multi-Inform product family, and labels with detachable parts in its Pharma-Comb peel-off labels, designed for ampules, syringes, and vials. In the Pharma-Comb product line, label sections with key information such as batch code and expiry date are peeled off by caregivers for reliably documenting drug administration, or for clearly and quickly labeling different containers used in preparing and administering drugs.

Earlier this year, the company opened its first U.S. facility less than 30 miles from New York City in Blauvelt, NY, for pharmaceutical label converting. The 50,000-sq-ft plant is equipped with state-of-the-art flexo and screen printing machines, according to Gene Dul, president of Schreiner MediPharm L.P.

The company’s Pharma-Tac line features hangers that are integrated into infusion bottle labels to simplify bottle handling. For Swiss-based Octapharma, Schreiner MediPharm, in cooperation with Schreiner’s Pro Secure division, developed a hanger label solution with an integrated security hologram.

“Octapharma wanted to provide counterfeit protection for a range of vital blood plasma products sold to China, using overt and covert security features,” Dul says. “This multifunction solution provides easy handling with an easy way to perform quick authenticity checks in hospitals. In addition, Octapharma reduced manufacturing costs, as there was no need to produce and package separate hangers.”

For monitoring temperature-sensitive products during transport from the manufacturer to the patient, the company is offering an RFID-enabled label solution, in its e-temp system. Credit-card-sized e-temp-labels in self-adhesive and nonadhesive card form can be fixed to any type of packaging.

“The e-temp system consists of e-temp-labels for measuring and storing temperature data, as well as high-capacity, validated software for analyzing the measured data, and a hardware component that reads the data via an RFID interface,” Dul says.

Smaller-Sized Outserts

Vijuk Equipment Inc. (Elmhurst, IL) has introduced wider-format machines in response to growing global demand for larger-sized right-turn-angle (RTA) outsert leaflets.

The company this year launched a mid-sized version of the Vijuk MV-2005 outsert system that handles a 20-in.-wide flat sheet for customers looking to migrate from Vijuk’s original 17-in.-wide system. An MV-2005 machine for folding a 27-in. sheet was introduced in 2006.

Griesser & Kunzmann of Wellendingen, Germany, manufacturer of the primary folder in the system, manufactures the MV-2005 outsert section to Vijuk specification. “Increasingly, our customers are requiring the 20- and 27-in. capacity with the Vijuk MV-2005 to meet FDA copy rules and print leaflets in multiple languages,” says Bill Neubauer, vice president of administration and technical services at Vijuk.

In the outsert folding process, flat sheets are fed into a folding station where up to 14 fold plates perform parallel folding. At a second station, an RTA folding unit makes two buckle folds. A Vijuk outsert attachment then makes two final folds, before gluing, pressing, and stacking.

As larger formats are sought to provide more space for copy at FDA-specified font sizes, packagers are also requiring smaller fold sizes. Vijuk redesigned the machine folding process to create minimum fold sizes of 11⁄18 × 11⁄8 in., from the previous minimum of 1¼ × 1¼ in.

The new minimum fold size was introduced this year, for converting 130 panel outserts from 111⁄8 × 15 in. flat sheets. Neubauer says the primary customers are overseas companies manufacturing generics for the U.S. market that require the reduced footprint configuration to fit outserts onto bottles’ caps.

Markets for Vijuk RTA folders have increased, as multinational converters, which include Chesapeake, Clondalkin, Catalent, CCL Label, M.Y. Healthcare, and Faller Group have expanded production capacity and locations through recent acquisitions. In October, Vijuk began conducting sales and technical support from Leonberg, Germany, to support markets in Europe, Asia, and India.

“RTA outserts are produced on Vijuk folding systems in 27 countries outside the United States, and we will soon be in many more countries. Our market for RTA outserts is expanding globally,” he adds.

For in-line creation of wraparound booklets up to 23 pages, Mark Andy (St. Louis) adapted its Model 4150 flexo press to handle four web infeeds simultaneously. After printing and slitting, the webs are interwoven and folded with a plow folder. The peel-open booklet configuration is ideal for applications in which patient information is required in multiple languages, or when a substantial amount of information needs to be incorporated into the label, says Jeff Feltz, director of product management.

Mark Andy’s Model 2200 narrow-web press has been redesigned to support printing on unsupported, or linerless, film. Servo technology is used for fully automatic register control, and effective reduction of material waste through all facets of production, Feltz says.

For controlling web tension, a servo motor constantly maintains the tension setting, responding to input from a transducer roll that measures the exact tension of the material in the press, says Feltz. He adds that the enhanced control allows the use of low-gauge label films, which customers are using to provide higher-end graphic effects.

“We can run filmic substrates such as bioriented polypropylene down to 25 µm, which opens up a whole new field of applications for converters, as a cost-effective alternative to self-adhesive [liner supported] labels. With the Model 2200 redesign, we offer the capability for running unsupported film with minimal investment,” he says.