Finnish company UPM Raflatac, one of the leading manufacturers of eco-friendly labeling materials, and Corning Pharmaceutical Technologies, a division of Corning Incorporated, one of the world's leading innovators in materials science, announced the results of their joint research. The findings demonstrate that the combination of the two companies' products performs well under various challenging drug storage conditions and provides significant sustainability advantages for pharmaceutical manufacturers.
Such characteristics are crucial for the safety and integrity of pharmaceutical products and meet the industry's needs for robust and reliable packaging. In the joint research conducted at UPM Raflatac’s facility in North Carolina, teams from both companies combined solutions for primary pharmaceutical packaging and labeling. These were tested under various storage conditions, including room temperature, dry heat, tropical, and cryogenic environments.
The tested combinations included Corning Viridian vials made from Type I borosilicate glass with an external coating, UPM Raflatac’s Forest Film labels, as well as thinner paper options such as PHARMAGLOSS and PHARMALITE. The product combinations performed well, demonstrating that the pairing of Corning and UPM Raflatac products can withstand rigorous conditions. Specifically, the labels showed satisfactory adhesion at various wrapping angles and storage conditions commonly used in pharmaceutical packaging.
The combination of UPM Raflatac and Corning products provided sustainability advantages without compromising performance. UPM Raflatac’s Forest Film label is the world’s first ISCC-certified wood-based plastic label material. This solution reduces the use of fossil-based primary plastics and is manufactured from bio-naphtha derived from tall oil, a byproduct of the cellulose pulping process. This product also achieves a 42% reduction in CO2 emissions compared to conventional fossil-based plastics. The thinner paper options, PHARMAGLOSS and PHARMALITE, also reduce environmental impact by decreasing material weight. Additionally, Corning’s Viridian vials use 20% less glass material than standard vials, resulting in a 30% reduction in Scope 3 emissions.
Source: PHARMPROM
