With an eye to the growing demand for senior-friendly packaging of medicines, as well as the stringent security and barrier requirements of the healthcare and diagnostic sectors, the flexibles division of Amcor and Swiss machine manufacturer Rychiger have teamed up to deliver a high stability container for healthcare products.
The Amcor MediCan, unveiled at this year’s Achema trade fair for chemical engineering, environmental protection and biotechnology in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, was developed in consultation with a number of leading world pharmaceutical companies.
Amcor says the can is designed to meet the most stringent packaging requirements of the pharmaceutical and medical industry, combining the strong barrier of aluminium against light, moisture and oxygen as well as high container stability.
“We have noticed a strong push for high barrier packaging solutions combined with good mechanical protection in the inhaler and diagnostic markets,” the marketing and business development manager of Amcor Flexibles Europe & Americas, Bertrand Jannon, says.
He says the containers provide a high degree of protection to healthcare products, enabling significant extension of shelf life.
It is also particularly suitable for inhalers and diagnostic devices which usually require total protection from moisture.
“Together with leading pharmaceutical companies, we have further developed our proven aluminium container technology to make it fit for the high requirements of this industry,” Jannon says.
Amcor’s partner in the development project, Rychiger AG, based in Switzerland, is known as a supplier of customer-specific solutions for packaging machines in the food, pet food, coffee and tea and pharmaceutical industries.
Its speciality is machines for portion packs of aluminium and barrier materials.
“Our innovative partnership with Rychiger enables us to offer a complete solution and the support of two leading companies in the pharmaceutical market,” Amcor’s Jannon says.
Jannon says the growing demand for senior-friendly packs was also an impetus in the MediCan’s development, with the product’s high integrity sealing technology enabling easy opening.
The MediCan can be produced in a wide range of shapes and designs, providing the best fit to the product specific format, he says.
He also listed the pack’s security features and production features as important benefits.
He says, for example, that the cans are produced under GMP conditions and can incorporate N’CRYPT, Amcor’s proprietary portfolio of anti-counterfeit features, as well as include integrated desiccant in its lid.
