Originally Published PMPN February 2005
NEWS
New Security Options for Medical Packagers |
| Drug makers do not need to determine toxic levels when using CR cap-and-vial packages. |
There was more than just sterile packaging on display at this year’s MedPak pavilion at MD&M West 2005 in Anaheim, CA. At booth 1939, DuPont Medical Packaging unveiled a new set of security technologies designed to help medical device packagers protect their products throughout the supply chain. DuPont’s extension of its packaging systems is the result of an investment agreement with Identif GmbH (Erlangen, Germany).
Two technologies are being introduced. The first is a color-shifting label that works on two levels, one overt and the other covert. The second is a covert synthetic-DNA marker that can be added to the package. The covert features of each technology can both be read using specific handheld devices.
The color shift relies on special photopolymer deposition technology to create a surface that overtly shifts color when rotated. Embedded in that surface is a nano-optical spectral code that can be verified using a handheld scanner. According to Miray Pereira, global business manager, DuPont Medical & Industrial Packaging, DuPont will supply finished materials in label form directly to medical device manufacturers.
The second technology involves creating a synthetic DNA helix, splitting it, and covertly embedding half in a code printed on the package and the other half in a handheld scanner, explains John Richard, North American business manager, medical and industrial packaging. When the code is scanned, “the two halves behave as a lock-and-key mechanism, and the handheld device emits a signal to verify product identity,” he says. Pharmaceutical manufacturer Bristol Myers Squibb is currently using the technology for its cancer and HIV drugs. For this technology, DuPont will customize a program by providing a finished label or by integrating it into the package design.
Pereira says that these technologies are currently being evaluated for their compatibility with sterilization methods commonly used for medical devices.
She expects the covert features of these technologies to be useful during supply-chain audits or during counterfeiting, tampering, or diversion investigations. Hospital personnel could use the overt features to determine product authenticity.
An agreement between DuPont and Identif was settled in January. Several of DuPont’s business units are involved as part of a cross-market effort to combat counterfeiting, tampering, and diversion under the DuPont Security & Solutions umbrella.
In addition to offering these technologies, DuPont is offering brand security workshops through DuPont Security & Solutions. The half-day or full-day workshops are led by Carolyn Burns, global marketing manager, who has focused on anticounterfeiting practices for the last decade. Pereira described these as additional offerings to give additional layers of protection. She also described the DuPont brand Izon, which DuPont’s unique photopolymer film and hologram imaging capability incorporates into labels. These are independently supplied by DuPont Authentication Systems LLC, a joint venture between DuPont and an affiliate of Label Systems Inc. (Bridgeport, CT).
Copyright ©2005 Pharmaceutical & Medical Packaging News
