Three-step blood bag reduces risks and costs

  Blood collection bag permits users to lyophilize, store, and reconstitute blood in a single device, a prototype of which has been sent to the U.S. Army. 

Carton design lures buyers

   Communicative descriptors and color schemes on cartons help Ansell Healthcare Products introduce its LifeStyles condoms.

Artegraft switches to copolyester for vascular graft tubes

  Company transitions from cylindrical glass culture tubes for its collagen vascular grafts to a copolyester-based tube with a flat side, helping to prevent breakage and save money.

Air cushioning brightens Sunrise Medical’s shipments

  Shipments of the company’s Quickie-brand wheelchairs now arrive undamaged. Sunrise packaging personnel also appreciate the new protective cushioning.

Autoinjector guards against needlesticks

  Medical practitioners and consumers alike have both long complained about medical device packaging that doesn’t adequately protect the user as the package is opened. To enhance user safety, Amgen, Thousand Oaks, CA, provides a simpler and secure way to administer medications—the Aranesp prefiilled SureClick™ autoinjector. It is a combination product where the device and drug are delivered as one unit. The autoinjector’s features help to minimize potential needlestick injuries for healthcare providers and patients. The device has been introduced in France.

Innovative package protects medical devices

  An application of KORRVU® suspension and retention packaging provides Spacelabs Healthcare with a protective, cost-effective, and environmentally friendly solution for shipping irregularly shaped and highly sensitive patient monitoring systems around the world. The package is from Sealed Air Corp. (www.sealedair.com).

PU protection at DePuy

  At medical device maker DePuy Orthopaedics, polyurethane protective packaging from Barger Packaging (www.bargerpackaging.com) is playing a key role in getting hip and knee replacement products to DuPuy's intended patients.

Reshaping packs for condoms

 Global Protection selects round case to display—and sell—its colorfully wrapped condoms.

FPA winners sparkle

 From 89 entries, here are the top winners in the 2005 awards competition sponsored by the Flexible Packaging Assn.

Packaging delivers for pharmaceutical and medical firms

 A ‘talking’ prescription pill bottle, GlaxoSmithKline’s contract-packaged medication for AIDS, and a medical device-drug hybrid that contains, mixes, and injects medicine in one unit are among five innovative packaging solutions.

Two-in-one medical hybrid pack (sidebar)

 A packaging system that contains, mixes, and injects medicine all in one unit?

Med packs pass test intact

 To complement its visual tests and destructive peel-strength testing for sealed trays for products such as breast implants, medical device packager Mentor Corp., Irving, TX, operates a PTI 225 tester from Packaging Technologies and Inspection.

Two-piece tray delivers surgical stents

 For a new self-expanding surgical stent, Medtronic Vascular selects compact new thermoform design to make the product easy to unpack.

Packaging technology on display

 Once again the DuPont Awards competition attracted the best and the brightest where advancements in plastic packaging technology are concerned.

Injecting an innovative packaging solution

 Syringe maker Safety 1st Medical relied heavily on suppliers for help in designing an automated packaging solution for its unique syringes.

Council awards paperboard excellence

 A beverage carrier used by High Falls Brewing Co., Inc., and a paperboard medical device created for Thayer Medical, Inc., won the two top awards in the 60th National Paperboard Packaging Competition of the Paperboard Packaging Council (Alexandria, VA).