Medical Device Link.

NEWS

The world’s leading packaging machinery manufacturers are the United States (producing 23% of all machinery for the industry) and Germany (producing 19%), according to the Confederation of Packaging Machinery Associations (COPAMA). In 2004, the most recent year for which figures are available, the United States brought in a total of $6.413 billion in packaging machinery, maintaining its number-one ranking for the tenth consecutive year. Germany’s sales that year totaled $5.224 billion. Japan and Italy are almost tied for third place, each manufacturing about 14% of the industry’s machinery. Japan’s sales totaled 3.735 billion, just slightly higher than Italy’s 3.72 billion. COPAMA is an international group of national packaging machinery associations that releases statistics on total world packaging machinery turnover. Those statistics are compiled from the statistics contributed by the member associations. The Packaging Machinery Manufacturers Institute is a member that contributes statistics based on U.S. Census Bureau data and its own annual surveys of the U.S. industry. Countries are ranked on the basis of total dollar sales of packaging equipment, parts, and services.

A U.S. district court has ruled in favor of CSP Technologies (CSP; Auburn, AL) in a patent case against Süd-Chemie Inc. (SCI; Munich) involving desiccant-entrained polymer containers used for pharmaceutical and diagnostic packaging. On August 4, 2006, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana ruled that CSP’s U.S. patents—nos. 5,911,937 and 6,214,255—are valid and that SCI infringed six claims of the two patents (Case 4:03-cv-00003-SEB-WGH Docket No. 606). The court found that the evidence was in favor of CSP. CSP will now request that the court find that SCI’s infringement was willful and that SCI should pay for CSP’s attorneys’ fees and costs.

The Boulder County Business Report presented the 2006 Innovation Quotient (IQ) Award to Analytical Spectral Devices Inc. (Boulder, CO) for its RxSpec drug verification technology. The award—in the medical and health products category—is presented in recognition of outstanding technological contributions by businesses located in the Boulder Valley region. The RxSpec system is designed to be used in a pharmacy to examine drugs directly in the dispensing vials and to confirm that the correct drug and dosage are being dispensed. The system uses analytical and imaging technology to read the chemical composition and dosage of a drug, and then compares the information with a drug identification library.

Remmele Engineering’s Automation Division has been recognized with an award from an in vitro diagnostics manufacturer. In presenting the award, the manufacturer commended Remmele for devising an ergonomic, intuitive, and user-friendly human-machine interface (HMI). The client has reportedly seen minimized operator motion and fewer unnecessary actions, automation of batch record recording, and elimination of 96% of the root causes of human errors when using its assembly machine.

MicroDose Technologies Inc. (Monmouth Junction, NJ) has entered into a multiproduct development and licensing agreement with Novartis using its MicroDose proprietary dry-powder inhaler (DPI). Novartis will receive exclusive rights to the MicroDose inhaler technology for its proprietary respiratory products.

According to MicroDose, the MicroDose DPI is a handheld, breath-activated device that uses piezoelectronics to deliver a broad range of compounds. It operates independently of inhalation effort. MicroDose is developing an inhalable insulin product through its joint venture, QDose, and is also codeveloping with the University of Pittsburgh an inhaler for a nerve agent antidote for the U.S. Department of Defense. MicroDose is also working internally on oral-dosage products in the areas of diabetes, hypertension, and hyperlipidemia.