Great Dane: through the doors at Gerresheimer
Medical packaging group Gerresheimer has sites all around the world, but from one facility in Denmark, the group produces vast quantities of innovative packaging solutions for some of the biggest names in pharma. Dave Gray takes a look through the doors at Gerresheimer
Situated on the outskirts of ‘wonderful, wonderful Copenhagen’ in a small town called Vaerloese, the Gerresheimer facility stands at 12,000m2, having been built back in 1964, before the company was known as a specialist supplier to the medical sector. Back then the group had operations in many different packaging markets.
Last year the Danish arm of Gerresheimer celebrated its 50th anniversary. Originally called Dudek Plast, it was founded in 1964 by Peter Dudek, who is now 86.
There are currently 100 employees at the two Danish production facilities in Vaerloese and Haarby.
Today though, the Vaerloese site is used for the manufacture of the group’s Duma and Dudek branded portfolios for pharmaceutical packaging.
Twist and shout
Duma Twist-Off, was first launched way back in 1992 – notable for its cap design. Over the years the portfolio has seen many variations, and this year a new product was launched which re-thinks the concept altogether.
Improvements include more uniform wall thickness, optimised closure design and compatibility with all other high quality Duma Twist-Off and Duma OneLiner closures. But most noticeable change is the new closure which is designed to be user-friendly for the elderly (it can be easily opened using the side of a coffee table or with a biro pen) and yet maintains child-resistance.
“We want to ensure that elderly citizens who aren’t as strong as they used to be can still open their tablet containers,” said Niels Düring, global executive vice president, plastic packaging. “But we also want to prevent curious children in the family from being able to swallow their grandparents‘ tablets.”
Walking around the factory, it’s clear that Gerresheimer has a strong emphasis on design quality. But speaking with Niels Düring, it also becomes apparent that innovation still has a major role to play. He explains that dispensing is one key area where the group sees potential for development.
In fact Düring revealed that the group has developed 12 new dispensing solutions. He added that 40% of all prescribed medicines do not achieve their full effect, either because they are taken at the wrong time, at the wrong dose, or not taken at all. The healthcare system is driving innovation here, as it becomes increasingly intolerant of the cost and waste of misused medicines.
Seeing eye to eye
As an example, Düring demonstrated DropAid – a delivery solution for eye drops. The design is simple but clever.
Not only does it make the dropper bottle easier to open, it also allows the user to position the bottle so that the eye drops end up in the eye rather than around the edges.
Above it all though, quality is key for the group. “Quality is crucial in our business,” explained Our tour is concluded by Charlotte Borgensgaard, chairman of the group’s quality council. “Quality is crucial in our business. Quality is something that affects us all, because we all take medications at some time or other.”
The company operates a global quality initiative which involves a close collaboration with all quality managers around the world.