Clariant partnership creates protection in plastic medical devices

Clariant, has teamed up with SICPA, security solutions provider to develop Plastiward – integrated protection for plastic pharmaceutical packaging or medical devices.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), more than 8% of the medical devices in circulation are counterfeit and Interpol estimates USD75 billion of counterfeit pharmaceuticals enter the market every year. Counterfeit medical devices pose a significant liability to their manufacturers and a risk of injury, permanent disability or even death to both patients and healthcare providers. The mission of safe access to treatments remains a challenge to medical devices and pharmaceutical companies despite investments in fighting fakes. As it is well accepted that layers of security are necessary, the features of Plastiward are designed to help with this approach.

Proprietary covert taggant additives, produced by SICPA, are delivered to one of Clariant's ISO13485-certified plants where Mevopur brand-controlled, consistent and compliant materials are produced. The taggants are incorporated into the polymers used in medical devices and pharmaceutical packaging, either in a concentrated masterbatch form or as a finished polymer compound. The taggants then become part of the plastic product where they are readily detectable using SICPA's proven deployment and monitoring platform.

Once the tagged product enters the supply stream, the SICPA monitoring system is able to identify them at any point from factory to pharmacy. Products can be instantaneously authenticated using a handheld detector. That data gets uploaded and aggregated on a secure inspection platform from SICPA that facilitates real-time monitoring at global, regional or local levels so that action can be taken quickly if necessary.

"Plastiward offers medical-device and pharmaceutical-packaging companies a two-in-one approach," explained Steve Duckworth, head of global segment healthcare polymer solutions at Clariant. "It combines Clariant's track record in developing polymer compounds and masterbatches tailored to the unique requirements of clients in those sectors with SICPA's proven expertise in protecting brands and products. As part of the Plastiward value proposition, our unique solution offers clients one seamless package comprising: security assessment, definition of their needs, security system design, system deployment and on-going performance monitoring."

Both companies are at the Clariant booth at CPhI India.