CPhI NEWS: Shellpak Renew receives CPhI sustainable packaging award
Reduced weight and size offer distribution benefits, while improved patient compliance achieves social sustainability
Global packaging company MeadWestvaco’s (MWV) medication adherence solution Shellpak Renew received the inaugural Best Sustainable Pharmaceutical Packaging award at CPhI Worldwide in Madrid, Spain. Shellpak Renew has been adapted from MWV’s original Shellpak design, based on customer research, to deliver key patient improvements: decreased weight and size, and including an environmentally friendly, curbside recyclable outer carton.
Medication packaging can play a unique and effective role with patients, reinforcing important information about how to take their medications correctly on each and every use. Research shows that approximately half of all patients across the globe do not take their medicines as prescribed.
Launched in April 2012, Shellpak Renew has colour-coded spine labels to help distinguish among drugs; easy-open, child-resistant push buttons; and an integrated calendar that helps patients track medication usage. Additionally, it provides a weight reduction of 40% and a volume reduction of 30% over the original Shellpak, will save millions of pounds of plastic per year and has an outer carton made of Natralock, an environmentally friendly paperboard that maximises the use of recyclable materials and minimises waste.
‘Hundreds of millions of Shellpaks have been distributed, so we recognise the importance of maximising effective use of materials and minimising waste,’ said John Grinnell, vice president and managing director for MWV Healthcare’s Secondary and Adherence Packaging Division.
‘Shellpak Renew is a platform for an integrated medication adherence programme based on patients’ needs, and includes features that educate patients about how to take their medications correctly. With Shellpak Renew, we’re able to provide this platform to our customers in an environmentally-friendly format.’
This year marked the introduction of the Best Sustainable Packaging award category in the CPhI Pharma Awards. It recognises companies that provide excellence in delivering a specific material, process or piece of equipment that enables pharmaceutical companies to achieve a more sustainable package or process. The other finalists for the award were August Faller and Top Clean Packaging.
