Security cap evolution
By Canadian Packaging staff
Design & Innovation Food Safety Bottling cap security Flexi-Cap Flexi-Cap Plus InnoPack Schreiner MediPharmFlexi-Cap Plus offers enhanced security via its integrated tear strip.
OBERSCHLEISSHEIM, GERMANY—Illegal reuse of empty medicine containers with original labels poses a major problem to pharmaceutical manufacturers. So-called dumpster divers, for instance, sift through rubbish for used original containers and fill them with ineffective or harmful counterfeit substances. The alleged originals are subsequently put on the market without revealing any signs of tampering at first glance.
To counteract these illegal practices, Schreiner MediPharm has further developed its Flexi-Cap line, creating the Flexi-Cap Plus, and innovative security solution that irreversibly indicates the first opening of primary containers and thus prevents illegal filling and reuse of empty containers with counterfeit substances.
Flexi-Cap Plus features a tear strip running through the label as a new integrated element. This offers enhanced tampering protection because the label is destroyed upon initial opening, and can no longer be reused as an alleged original label.
“(What makes the Flexi-Cap Plus so special) is that the tear strip does not run through the film cap, but rather is integrated directly in the label. When the tear strip is opened, it automatically destroys the label and makes it impossible to illegally reuse the container with the original label,” explains Schreiner MediPharm president Ann L. Merchant.
By adding other overt and covert security technologies, such as holograms, color-shifting inks, void effects or security pigments, further hurdles to tampering can be raised.
Flexi-Cap Plus can be flexibly customized to accommodate various glass container types, shapes and sizes, and is easily integrated into a pharmaceutical manufacturer’s existing brand design. Particularly useful for small containers, the lid of the film cap also offers additional space that can be used for imprinting barcodes or integrating NFC (near-field communication) chips for interactive applications. The label construction is applied without heat and thus suitable for temperature-sensitive medicines.
Merchant summarizes the benefits: “End users in healthcare settings receive an efficient security solution that is intuitive to use and makes it easy to check first opening. Last but not least, the patient is protected against administration of ineffective or harmful medications.”
Schreiner MediPharm will present its product innovations at InnoPack as part of CPhI Worldwide in Barcelona, Spain on October 4-6, 2016 in Hall 2, Booth #2K53.
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