Using integrated optical sensors in the pen, D-Flex Connect provides valuable feedback, not only confirming that the patient has taken the medication but also indicating the precise amount administered each time. This information on the time and dose of each subcutaneous application is automatically documented, giving a clear picture of the patient's current therapy status. Connectivity via smart phone app means patients receive a reminder if they forget to take a dose. Moreover, they can view details themselves, for example to check whether they have already administered the drug. This innovative combination of state-of-the-art disposable injection pen and future-proof connected platform provides peace of mind for patients and medical professionals alike and helps to enhance patient safety. What's more, clearer insights can help improve compliance and therapy effectiveness.

The N95 masks are desperately needed by healthcare personnel due to the shortage of disposable masks during the COVID-19 pandemic, says the company. In this simple disinfecting process, the N95 mask and a small strip of Aptar’s ActivShield™ are placed inside any commonly available one-gallon plastic bag. The strip releases a controlled amount of chlorine dioxide inside the sealed bag to decontaminate the mask. The process takes only three hours until the mask is ready to wear again. It can be performed on-site at the local hospital where the mask is being used. Aptar has submitted its safety and effectiveness data to the FDA for EUA review. The company is working to provide approximately four million ActivShield strips per week and is working to expand its production capacity with the intent to deliver ten million per week by the end of April. “We are extremely encouraged by the promising data generated so far and are eager to deliver this technology to the front line and support the fight against the pandemic,” said John Belfance, President of Aptar CSP Technologies. If the FDA approves the EUA, then ActivShield will immediately become available for this important use. Chlorine dioxide has been widely used as a disinfectant in different industries, including the paper industry, drinking water treatment, food processing, and medical equipment. Aptar’s delivery mechanism uses the disinfecting properties of chlorine dioxide in a controlled sustained release within a contained volume. ActivShield™ can efficiently and effectively disinfect N95 masks used by healthcare workers and first responders, it is claimed. “Aptar’s technology provides a unique, simple, and effective way to help solve the critical problem of PPE shortages we’re currently facing,” said Stephan Tanda, Aptar president and CEO. “We are aiming to provide a solution that is not only fast, but it does not require special equipment or training, making it potentially accessible to the wider healthcare community. This could enable healthcare workers to retain and disinfect their own facemask, helping to maintain continued proper fitting to their faces.”

The new plastic surface – a treated form of conventional transparent wrap – can be shrink-wrapped onto surfaces, such as handles, that can be magnets for bacteria such as MRSA and C. difficile. The treated material is also ideal for food packaging, where it could stop the accidental transfer of bacteria such as E. coli, Salmonella and listeria from raw chicken, meat and other foods, as described in a paper published by the journal ACS Nano.

The site, located in Macungie, PA, will offer primary and secondary pharmaceutical packaging including bottling, blistering, vial labeling and medical device kitting as well as serialization services. Located within 6 miles of Sharp’s Allentown campus, the Macungie site provides the company with additional capacity in response to increasing volume demands from clients, as well as the space to expand further. The site will commence an immediate integration to the Sharp facility network. The 160,000 sq.-ft. facility has full regulatory approval and comes with 12 primary production suites, space for multiple secondary packaging lines, 30,000 sq. ft. of warehouse space and c. 66,000 sq. ft. of unused space. Kevin Orfan, President of Sharp said: “Our focus as always is to invest to better serve our clients and their patients, and the acquisition of the Macungie facility will help us to support their needs immediately and for years to come,” said Kevin Orfan, president, Sharp. “Its proximity to our Centers of Excellence in Allentown will allow us to leverage existing capabilities and help us to continue delivering efficiently while growing our capacity. “This investment is the latest of many that we have made over recent years to meet the continuing growth in demand for our packaging and clinical services as we continue to support clients across the pharmaceutical and biotech industries.” Sharp has invested over $60 million on its global facilities over recent years including: • $21m on expanding capacity and capabilities at its Allentown and Conshohocken, PA facilities; • $11m on its new Clinical Services Centre of Excellence in Wales; • $11m on enhancing its injectable and cold chain capabilities in the U.S., Belgium and the Netherlands; and • $23m on its refitted state-of-the-art clinical facility in Bethlehem, PA.

Continuing to evolve its brand and strengthen its customer connections, Boulder, Colo.-based Ethan’s, the functional shot company, has announced the rebranding of its line of wellness shots, putting function at the forefront of their packaging. “At Ethan’s, we keep a very open dialogue with our customers, so when we learned that they were looking for more clarification on the function and occasion for each of our shots, we knew it was time to make some changes in our packaging,” says Ethan Hirshberg, founder of Ethan’s. The new labels for its 2-oz glass bottles are being used for Ethan’s Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV), MCT, and Fire Shots varieties and explicitly state the function for each: Daily Detox, Fast Fuel, and Immune Boost, respectively. Along with this new focus on function, Ethan’s has changed the color of each bottle to reflect the shots’ unique flavors and primary ingredients. According to Hirshberg, “Not only does this new packaging answer the question of function and occasion for each line, but we feel that it exudes more of the creative, fun, and wholesome personality that the Ethan’s brand embodies.” In addition to their commitment to improving the customer experience, Ethan’s is also devoted to making strides toward a more sustainable future, thus they have chosen to switch their plastic caps to aluminum. Doing so, the company will save nearly 10,000 pounds of plastic per year from just the cap alone. According to the company, as the brand and product line continues to evolve, Ethan’s is committed to finding new ways to make their products and their packaging as sustainable as possible. With the introduction of this new function-first product packaging, Ethan’s hopes to not only improve the shopping experience for existing customers, but also educate new customers on how to best enjoy Ethan’s products. The new packaging will be reflected on all new and existing Ethan’s product lines moving forward.

The company is seeing a surge in interest in more high-tech healthcare packaging, including printed electronics, with the challenges of COVID-19. “Recently, we have been asked about COVID-19 testing kits with intelligent and connected capabilities,” Chris Jones Harris principal, corporate development at the company said. “The market is experiencing a rise in counterfeit testing kits, while authentic at-home kits can be difficult for consumers to understand and use.” “This has led us to important work with multiple partners to create intelligent kit options that not only allow consumers to quickly confirm a kit is authentic and manufactured under safe conditions, but can also provide consumers with easy access to tutorial videos to demonstrate proper use – all of this with the tap of a smartphone to the packaging. At this time, we have provisional designs with partners undergoing regulatory approval,” Jones Harris added. Jones is also in the process of acquiring design protection patents in North America for another of its innovations – intelligent, monitored medication adherence cards to ensure compliance with complex polypharmaceutical regimes. “This system digitally tracks whether patients have removed prescribed doses of medication at the right times – and can also send reminders to patients, healthcare providers and caregivers when medications have not been taken,” Nic Hunt, chief strategy officer at Jones, explained. There is a growing consumer familiarity with NFC tap interaction, which the company is well placed to develop and produce, it claims. The team’s current focus is on intelligent, connected packaging –evaluating different electronic sensors that could connect with embedded NFC and RFID technologies in packaging. These sensors could detect humidity or temperature to ensure product integrity, for example.

I would like to inform you of the measures Aptar is taking in regards to the evolving coronavirus pandemic in order to continue to support our customers to the best of our ability during this time: We have implemented a Global COVID-19 Action Team who is meeting daily to identify and mitigate potential risks as much as possible. This Action Team has implemented a COVID-19 Exposure Control Plan, which was prepared by our Environment, Health and Safety team. We are closely monitoring our entire supply chain up to the Tier-1 level, including direct materials, components and spare parts. We are also taking steps to protect our production teams, so that we can continue our important work including manufacturing products that are very much needed to help fight the spreading of the virus, such as pumps and closures for sanitizing and antibacterial products, as well as the manufacturing of our pharma solutions that can help to save lives and our food and beverage solutions that are helping people with basic nutrition needs. To protect our site production teams, we are restricting all visitors to only those essential for business continuity. We are restricting access to our canteens and cafeterias to our production teams only and encourage everyone to practice good hygiene and social distancing. We are also asking our cleaning service providers to escalate their cleaning and sanitizing procedures. Currently, the local site HR departments, in combination with the site leadership teams, are preparing plans to have a proper balance of remote workers and on-site staff in order to support our customers and our ongoing production. Should any risks arise which may affect your business, we will inform you and work to find alternative supply solutions. At this time, and to the best of our knowledge, we have not identified any risks in the short-term with any of our Tier-1 partners. We are working to push our analysis further upstream and continue to monitor the evolution of the situation. We are committed to taking all necessary measures to maintain the continuity of business and we will reach out to you should there be any known impact. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact your Aptar representative. Sincerely, Stephan B. Tanda President and CEO, Aptar

In this simple disinfecting process, the FFP2 mask and a small strip of Aptar’s ActivShieldTM technology are placed inside any commonly available one-gallon plastic bag. The strip releases a controlled amount of chlorine dioxide inside the sealed bag to decontaminate the FFP2 mask. The process takes only two hours until the mask is ready to wear again. It can be performed on-site at the local hospital where the mask is being used. The EUA submission in Germany is part of Aptar’s strategy to expand global access to FFP2 respirators allowing for the decontamination and reuse of masks for ten cycles. This innovative patent pending technology can efficiently and effectively disinfect FFP2 masks used by healthcare workers and first responders. The German EUA BfArM submission follows Aptar’s U.S. FDA Emergency Use Authorization submission in early April. Germany is thus the first country in the EU where an application to this effect has been submitted to the authorities. “We are proud to continue to support the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic by furthering our efforts to bring this innovative technology to the global health care community. We have a long-standing presence in Germany and we will continue to support the communities where we live and work,” said Stephan Tanda, Aptar President and CEO. “Our technology provides a unique, simple, and effective way to help solve the critical problem of PPE shortages we’re currently facing. We look forward to working with the U.S. FDA and BfArM to bring ActivShieldTM to market and fulfill the ongoing unmet need.” Chlorine dioxide has been widely used as a disinfectant in different industries, including the paper industry, drinking water treatment, food processing, and medical equipment. Aptar’s delivery mechanism uses the disinfecting properties of chlorine dioxide in a controlled sustained release within a contained volume. Studies on the ActivShield™ system show the treatment to be 99.999% effective against viruses. Detailed data on the effectiveness and safety of the ActivShield™ system is available at www.aptaractivshield.com.

With the new 3D printer build surface made of SUSTAPEEK, Röchling wants to simplify work processes for 3D printers in fused deposition modelling. The application of the first filament layer on the build surface plays a key role in achieving optimum printing results. The 3D printer build surface must have a high adhesive effect so that the printing object has high stability during the printing process and remains fixed in the specified position. Conventional build surfaces usually have to be processed for a strong adhesive effect. The surface is, for example, coated with foils or treated with liquid adhesive. This costs time and money. Specially applied adhesives are difficult to remove from the object and from the surface. At the same time, due to the high temperatures during printing, films can lose their adhesion properties over time and must be replaced. Strong adhesion During material application in the printing process, a 3D printer build surface made of high-performance plastic SUSTAPEEK adhere strongly to the printing object without any surface treatment. This saves time and money. “We want to optimise and simplify the work process for printers”, says Stefan Maurer, Head of Sales & Marketing at Röchling Sustaplast in Lahnstein, Germany. “Our SUSTAPEEK 3D printer build surface can be used simply, without surface treatment.” If the adhesion is insufficient, it can be further increased via additional roughening. Prototypes, model making, mechanical components The SUSTAPEEK 3D printer build surface is suitable for common fused deposition modelling applications such as early prototypes, model making and the industrial production of mechanical components and spare parts. “In particular, prototypes in the early stages can be developed even faster with a 3D printer build surface made of SUSTAPEEK, since the time for surface processing is no longer required. Printers can concentrate even more on optimising the design and functions of their components”, explains Maurer. Avoid warp effects At the same time, the strong adhesive effect of SUSTAPEEK in combination with the highly homogeneous surface contributes to avoiding the warp effect and thus supports the reliable production of components. Thickness of just 1 mm enables excellent heat transfer The 3D printer build surface made of SUSTAPEEK isavailable in thicknesses from 4 mm up to 1 mm. This very low thickness enables particularly good heat transfer. Components can thus be produced very reliably. Suitable for a wide range of filament types The SUSTAPEEK 3D printer build surface is suitable for various common filaments such as ABS, PLA and PET, but also for high-performance materials such as PEEK and PEI. The time-consuming swapping out of the 3D printer build surface for the use of different filaments is not necessary. The fastening can be done with staples or heat-resistant, double-sided adhesive tape. High temperature resistance Thanks to a continuous operating temperature of up to 250 °C and a short-term maximum operating temperature of up to 310 °C, the SUSTAPEEK 3D printer build surface withstand unintentional contact with the printer nozzle. A conventional 3D printer build surface is quickly damaged by contact with the nozzle and may have to be replaced. Long service life and clean printing bed The finished printing object can be easily removed from the build surface with a spatula. With the high wear and scratch resistance of SUSTAPEEK, the build surface has a very long service life and an visually high-quality surface. After printing, the surface can be easily cleaned with standard cleaning agents and thus offers a permanently clean printing bed. Supply range 3D printer build surface made of SUSTAPEEK: • Thickness: 1-4mm • Format: up to 3000 mm x 1000 mm • Also available in individual shapes and sizes

Becomes the world’s first and the only capsule manufacturer to receive it

ACG -- a leading supplier of fully integrated solutions to the global pharmaceutical and nutraceutical industry, has received a certification of compliance from Clean Label ProjectTM for its ACGcapsTM H+. ACG Capsules has long been recognised for the quality and integrity of its ‘clean capsule’ design and manufacture and with this accreditation it has become the world’s first capsules to receive the certification from the Clean Label Project.