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Tray pack 'sticks' for safety needle

Film’s strength, rigidity, and thermoforming benefits make it Now Medical’s choice for a tray that contains a patented safety needle.

Finished packages and thermoformed trays.
Finished packages and thermoformed trays.

A thermoformed tray made of Klöckner Pentaplast’s Pentamed® PETG film holds a patented right-angle HuberPlus safety needle from Now Medical, Inc., that’s shipped to hospitals and outpatient clinics throughout the United States.

Each clear tray holds a single needle. In all, there are upwards of 20 different needles, in various gauges, needle lengths from 1¼2” to 11¼2”, and combinations that may include tubing or valve connectors. Two tray sizes are used for the different configurations: 31¼2”x31¼2”x11¼2” deep and 4”x4” x not quite 2” deep. The trays have no compartments. A polyvinyl chloride sheath or tube is manually slipped onto the needle to prevent it from puncturing the lidding, DuPont’s 1059B Tyvek®, a medical-grade material coated on one side with a heat-seal adhesive that adheres to the tray.

Now Medical introduced the HuberPlus, a safer version of the venerable Huber needle, about five years ago as a way to better protect healthcare professionals from accidental needlestick injuries when inserting or retracting a needle from a patient.

“Huber needles have been around 20 years or more,” says Dean Iwasaki, director of business development for Chadds Ford, PA-based Now Medical. “Years ago, needles or ‘sharps’ legislation was passed to help protect healthcare givers from being exposed to biohazards.

“This Huber needle device is used primarily for infusion purposes, often for chemotherapy for cancer patients. Patients are given an implantable vascular access port (IVAP) that is placed under the skin. The needle goes through the skin, then through the septum of the port. From there, you can infuse chemotherapy drugs or actually draw blood. The needle can be left in the port in the patient for several days in the hospital,” he says.

“When [a healthcare worker is] pulling the needle out of the port there’s what’s called a rebound effect,” Iwasaki continues. “As you pull the needle out, you encounter resistance and all of a sudden it just snaps or gives. That’s when people inadvertently stick themselves. We were the first company to address the safety needs about five years ago with the HuberPlus.”

Now Medical’s newest safety needle packed in the tray, the HuberClear, uses a collapsible clear-wing design, audible click, ergonomic grip, and small footprint. When it’s extracted from the IVAP, the wings fold over the needle and lock in place, making an audible click. That helps prevent accidental sticks that can lead to the transmission of blood-born pathogens, which can cause diseases such as hepatitis B and C, and HIV (human immunodeficiency virus).

Upstream tray manufacturing

Iwasaki points out that there are competitive Huber needle manufacturers, but he estimates that only one-fourth of such needles are packed into a deeper tray, or “tub,” as he calls it.

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