The pharmaceutical packaging and drug delivery industries are coming under ever increasing scrutiny when it comes to making their packaging production processes sustainable.

Bio-based and recyclable plastic materials offer tremendous opportunities for packaging and devices companies, although their use has to be balanced against regulatory requirements as well as the needs of original equipment manufacturers.

In this interview with Jean Jacques Legat, Projects and Innovation Director, Polymeris, and Manon Guyader, Innovation Health Project Manager, Polymeris, we discuss the various initiatives the business cluster is launching to address these vital issues.

Healthcare provision is constantly evolving. Whereas in the past decision making on treatments for patients was very much the domain of physicians and doctors, patients now feel more empowered to be involved in the decision making process. The healthcare industry is fully aware of this change and sees a constructive partnership and dialogue with patients as the best way of achieving better health outcomes.

In this podcast, we discuss with Nicholas Brooke, founder and executive director of The Synergist and founder of Patient Focused Medicines Development how the concept of patient engagement has developed and what tools are becoming available for meaningful patient engagement in the drug and medical devices development process.

The current pandemic has taught us that now more than ever, stay-at-home solutions are crucial for the ongoing provision of healthcare, particularly to elderly and more vulnerable patients suffering from multiple chronic diseases.

Thus, the onus has fallen on companies in the pharmaceutical packaging/drug delivery world to address the adherence challenges that arise from this shift to the home setting. Senior patients tend to have difficulty in using devices such as injectors, patches, eye droppers and inhalers, in terms of the challenging preparatory, administration and disposal steps required.

In the third Pharmapack podcast of this series, in partnership with Lund University in Sweden, and discussing with academic and industry experts, we will explore not only how companies should approach the design of senior-friendly self-administered drug devices by putting the patient and their physical and cognitive limitations at the heart of their programmes, but also how they can keep older patients involved and engaged at every phase of the development process.

Partnering with one of northern Europe’s oldest academic universities, Lund University in Sweden, Pharmapack has launched this three-part podcast series, delivering the latest insights on medication packaging innovation and the gathering momentum towards patient‐centric design.

Podcast Two: How do you apply patient-centric design to clinical packaging?

In the second of this exclusive three-part series, we talk to Sascha Sonnenberg, Global Head Business Development, Sharp Clinical Services, and Giana Carli Lorenzini, postdoctoral research fellow, Packaging Logistics at Lund University, who discuss the challenges of introducing better functionality and usability to clinical packaging amid tight constraints and how the latest innovations in this area are driving patient adherence.

Partnering with one of northern Europe’s oldest universities, Lund University in Sweden, Pharmapack is launching this is part one of a three-part podcast series, delivering the latest insights on medication packaging innovation and the gathering momentum towards patient‐centric design.

Podcast One: Why is pharmaceutical packaging shifting to a more patient-centric design?

In the first of this exclusive three-part series, in partnership with one of northern Europe’s oldest academic institutions, Lund University in Sweden, we talk to Giana Carli Lorenzini, postdoctoral research fellow, Packaging Logistics at Lund University, and discuss her research project on patient-centred pharmaceutical packaging design for enhanced life quality of older people and what is driving pharma packaging to shift to a more patient-centric design.

Increasing complexity of novel drugs and cost constraints have encouraged medicines administration to be shifted away from their traditional setting of a hospital or clinic to more cost-effective alternatives such as the patient’s own home. The ability for patients to self-administer life-changing molecules that treat chronic diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis, among others, is just one of the benefits of wearable injector.

In this interview with Andrei Josef, chief executive officer of Sorrel Medical, an Eitan Group company, we explore the latest trends in the fast growing and highly innovative world of wearable drug delivery systems from the perspective of a developer.

The pharmaceutical packaging and drug delivery industries utilizes a wide range of automated equipment in their production processes: packaging machines, mixing equipment, capsule and vial filling machines, tablet presses, conveyors to name a few.

Plastics, composites and rubbers are vital materials in these processes as they help to maximize equipment efficiency.

In this interview with Jean-Jacques Legat, Technical and Industrial Director at French business cluster, Plastipolis, we discuss its recent merger with Elastopole, a similar business cluster representing companies producing rubbers and polymers, and the implications of this move for the healthcare sector.

In this episode we are joined by Eric Dessertenne, CEO of BIOCORP and Sebastien Ferrandon, Global Head of Diabetes Integrated Care at Sanofi, to discuss the potential of connected devices, where we are in their story arc and where the future growth opportunities really lie.