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Bauer's pharmaceutical handbook lends 'Hall of Fame' packaging perspective

Professionals and students will benefit from an informative research tool now available for the healthcare packaging community.

Pw 5286 Bauer Book Cover

For many packaging professionals, The Wiley Encyclopedia of Packaging Technology by Aaron L. Brody and Kenneth S. Marsh has long served as perhaps the source for packaging technology information. Yet there’s not been an overall text resource for packagers in the healthcare/life sciences industries. Enter the Pharmaceutical Packaging Handbook by Edward J. Bauer.

But don’t let the book’s title fool you—it’s merely for brevity’s sake. Bauer’s text explores the packaging of pharmaceuticals as well as biologics, medical foods, and medical devices, and it even delves into the regulatory environment—a must in these healthcare fields.

This is the first book written by 2006 Packaging Hall of Fame inductee Bauer, who continues to expand his career and experiences, currently in product development for Pittsburgh-based General Nutrition Centers, Inc. (GNC). The nearly 600-page hardcover effort is hot off the presses from publisher Informa Healthcare USA Inc. (www.informa.com). Bauer’s professional career includes positions at Bausch and Lomb, American Home Products/Wyeth Ayerst Laboratories, and Ross Products Div. of Abbott Laboratories. Bauer was also a presenter at the 2008 Pharmaceutical Packaging Forum (www.packworld.com/ppf).

“The book’s target audience is anybody who is in pharmaceutical packaging and deals with packaging of regulated products,” says Bauer. “It touches on nutraceuticals and prescription medical foods, such as infant formula.” He believes the publication would also be suitable for classroom teaching.

In the preface, Bauer describes the book’s origins: “Pharmaceutical packaging is a subject that rarely comes to mind when thinking of drugs, medical devices, or other divisions of the health care industry. Packaging done well provides protection, sterility, and safety. Health care professionals and patients hardly give it a thought. Packaging done poorly usually means a package that is hard to open. These perceptions and the almost invisible presence of packaging science in most peoples’ understanding of pharmaceuticals was the idea behind this book.”

The book, he intimates, is rather unique: “There may be the occasional white paper or commentary on a specific area, yet I don’t know any place where you can find a continuum of information like this contains.”

The book, which costs $229.95, includes “well over 100 charts or illustrations,” he estimates. From a graphics perspective, more illustrations, perhaps even photos, would add some appeal. From a financial point of view, it’s understandable that there is no color in the handbook.

But this is not a coffee table-type book; it is a substantive text covering packaging complexities, an important written resource that can benefit engineers, marketers, purchasers, and virtually any packaging professionals or students wanting to know more about packaging in the life sciences areas.

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