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PACKAGING
EPM speaks to GARETH BAKEWELL, joint managing director at Reelvision about the evolution of packaging technologies in pharma and what this means for the safety of medicines.
LEADING THE PACK Packaging in life sciences is constantly evolving with new safety features (anti-tampering, tracking technologies etc). Despite this, do you think these technologies are being implemented in enough of a widespread manner throughout the industry? Without question there are many pharma companies that have a good strategy when it comes to protecting their products from targeted counterfeiters. These businesses have adopted a number of both physical and digital techniques. At Reelvision we have a constant flow of new designs and often received artwork that contains various counterfeiting features ranging from micro dots that appear randomly to micro text with hidden copy errors and pattern gloss varnishes with intentional imperfections. However there are many missed opportunities for brand owners to implement counterfeit features into their products and this could be due to a misconception that their inclusion will affect the cost of the packaging, which is not always the case. But with any advancement, the uptake of technology can be gradual and this is not always a bad thing as a slow uptake can often make the advancement more robust leading to long term positivity.
Reelvision’s lead time is particularly fast in this industry. How do you achieve this? To achieve this service and quality performance, we developed an inline print and die-cutting machine which controls colour through the utilisation of an engraved anilox roller with metered doctor blade that consistently delivered colour without variation. This secure singlepass manufacturing process eliminates the risk of admixture and is combined with a streamlined BSI approved MIS system to enable fast accurate order administration. This generates clear unambiguous instructions for production processing and dispatch of product with simultaneous invoicing.
