Packaging
Gerresheimer Bünde elucidates the connections between market requirements and production technologies
Monday 10. March 2008 - Seminar No. 6150 was a successful premiere: for the first time the prestigious German Association for Pharmaceutical Process Technology (Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Pharmazeutische Verfahrenstechnik - APV) took ready-to-fill syringes as the focus of one of its courses. Current trends in the field of ready-to-fill syringes was the subject on 4 and 5 March in Crailsheim in Southern Germany, when ten experts on pharmaceutics, drug delivery and pharmaceutical plant technology painted a multi-facetted picture.
As a leading manufacturer of syringe systems, Gerresheimer contributed to this revealing portrayal of future-oriented technologies and inspiring market developments to the participants.
The speaker from Gerresheimers competence centre in Bünde knew what interested his audience: Dr. Arno Fries, today Marketing Division Manager for the syringe business in North America and responsible for worldwide product management of this category, has a pharma industry background himself – like most of the seminar participants. The circle included representatives of a wide variety of functions including drug development, filling/packing, quality assurance, packaging procurement and registration. Fries gave an overview which was highly instructive for all the participants, elucidating the technological, scientific and economic factors and their complex interrelationships.
In terms of syringe production the manufacturing processes for Ready-to-Fill (RTF) systems was naturally a key area of interest. For Gerresheimer this highly sophisticated category of syringes – delivered completely assembled, siliconised and sterilised ready for filling – now accounts for a higher share of sales than traditional bulk-ware syringes. In parallel with manufacturing standards, Fries detailed the basic requirements of the pharma and biotech industry, comparing them directly with the technological concept development stages and the individual processing steps in syringe production. An overview of international market developments and trends across the entire field of ready-to-fill syringes provided an impressive conclusion to the talk.
“The AVP is highly reputed in the pharma and life science world,” says Burkhard Lingenberg, Director of Marketing and Communication for the Gerresheimer Group: “The very positive reception of seminars like this one is a trend indicator in itself.” It is likely to be repeated.