A growing ageing population base, prevalence of chronic diseases such as diabetes and cancers or more adoption of parenteral nutrition therapy, to name but a few, are today driving a growing demand in the global IV solutions markets. This trend is challenging the IV packaging industry to implement a more solid mitigation strategy to address risk that can arise from potential disruption in raw material supply. Consequences of this can be costly and damaging for the entire value chain if continuity of supply is not secured.SABIC has recently broadened its SABIC PCG portfolio for healthcare with the addition of a new LDPE grade to help the global IV packaging industry benefit from consistent and reliable supply.
The new grade, SABIC LDPE PCG06 is typically for use in semi-rigid plastic bottles obtained from the Blown Fill Seal (BFS) process to package a variety of Large Volume Parenteral (LVP) solutions such as saline or dextrose. "SABIC is committed to enabling our existing and potential customers to address risks and to providing a much needed credible supply to the industry globally as demand grows, thus improving confidence in the supply chain" said Hery Randrianantoandro, Healthcare Segment Leader at SABIC in Europe.
The grade has been tested on a Rommelag Blown-Fill-Seal bottlepack type 321 machine in close collaboration with Kocher-Plastik Maschinenbau GmbH of Germany, it requires only minor adjustments during processing compared to the market benchmark. "Based on tests performed on our machine type 321, this new grade SABIC LDPE PCG06 can be processed on a bottlepack machine for bottles with our LDPE equipment" emphasized Martin Groh, Technical Manager at Kocher-Plastik.
This new grade will not only be helping improve confidence in the supply chain but also can offer potential improvements in barrier properties, such as permeability to oxygen and water vapor, and higher autoclaving sterilization temperature compared to the market benchmark, thanks to its optimized structural density. "Improving the preservation of the efficacy and integrity of the drug product during its expected shelf-life is a continuous challenge for our customers," said Marnik Vaes, Technical Marketing Healthcare at SABIC, "It is an area where we are stepping up effort and focus in order to support our customers further," he added.
SABIC LDPE PCG06 fully complies with the European and US Pharmacopoeia standard and will be available worldwide.
