The European Aluminium Foil Association (EAFA) has awarded Amcor's Frangible Formpack® Blister an Alufoil Trophy for Technical Innovation.
The Frangible Formpack® Blister is a multi-chamber pharmaceutical blister that enables moisture-sensitive active ingredients such as drugs, vaccines or diagnostic reactants to be contained in the same package safely, prior to being mixed and dispensed. It has been jointly developed by Amcor Flexibles and machine builder Rohrer - Leading Solutions.
One chamber can be filled with a dry powder incorporating the active ingredient, the other one with a liquid. Thanks to the peelable frangible seal which opens the channel, both components are mixed by pushing on the cavities.
Guido Schmitz, Director of Packaging Design in Consumer Health, Bayer, the head of judging praised the highly innovative solution, "Sensitive dry medicines can be damaged by exposure to light, heat and, especially moisture. This pack goes a long way to solving all these issues, while offering a secure means of delivering it, in a liquid solution with sterile water, in almost any environment. This is a very well designed pack with much wider potential for application."
The high special sealant layer developed by Amcor achieves both a frangible and tight seal by applying different seal temperature levels. So there are two distinct sealing plateaus, creating a defined transition from frangible to tight, which means it is easy to handle on form/fill/seal lines and ensures that the opening mechanism works correctly at the point of delivery.
The new multi-chamber blister enhances drug stability and simplifies the supply chain by eliminating the necessity for cool storage and glass containers. It can also be used for point-of-care diagnostic testing in situations where a complex laboratory environment cannot be set up.
Commenting on the award, Andrea Della Torre, Senior Director R&D at Amcor Flexibles Europe, Middle East and Africa said "Amcor is very proud that this blister has been recognized by an Alufoil Trophy in the Technical Innovation category. The Frangible Formpack® Blister represents a novel way to transport vaccines, sensitive APIs or diagnostic tests to the more remote locations of the world, a key benefit to increase patient convenience and adherence".
Hans-Peter Rohrer, CEO Rohrer - Leading Solutions added "Rohrer has brought this innovation successfully to market through a combination of different capabilities. Very important was of course the mastery of the blister sealing process to enable frangible, but still tight seals in such applications. Even more important was a unique cost-efficient in-line sterilization process to enable this technology to be used in sterile applications, where the API would not survive a later sterilization procedure."
