Tekni-Films chooses Eastar® copolyester from Eastman

CAPELLE A/D IJSSEL, THE NETHERLANDS - Tekniflex PGA and Tekniflex PGOA offer Improved Moisture and Oxygen Barrier Blister films for Medical Products based on PETG / PCTFE and PETG / EVOH / PCTFE laminates.

Tekni-Films, a division of Tekni-Plex, Inc, has developed a new range of rigid films for the Medical packaging industry offering high moisture and oxygen barrier properties. Tekniflex PGA and PGOA films are based on multi-layer lamination constructions based on PETG, EVOH and PCTFE. These specialty film laminations have applications where ultra high barrier qualities and clarity are needed in a blister packaging application for medical devices or drug product / device combinations.

For this specific application, Tekni-Films selected Eastar® 6763 copolyester from Eastman Chemical Company. “Eastar 6763 copolyester offers excellent thermoforming properties for often complex medical trays, is sterilizable by irradiation (Gamma or e-beam) and the final package offers good physical protection due to the stiffness and resilience of Eastar copolyester.” says Thijs Jaarsma – Global Market Development Manager for Medical Packaging and Tubing at Eastman. "More so, Eastar can be used in combination with a wide variety of lidding structures offering an easy method of seal integrity inspection by visualization of the seal through the blue tint of the sheet."

Many Medical Device companies are facing the challenges of the tightened FDA regulations of Drug-Device combination products, which now require stability testing at high temperature and humidity conditions of up to 40°C / 75% RH.

Tekni-Plex specializes in adding thin layers of barrier film to basic thermoformable structures such as PVC and PETG. “We have 30 years of experience in high barrier pharmaceutical blister packaging, where the same high temperature and humidity testing requirements apply surrounding drug product stability” says Michiel van den Berg, responsible for Global Pharmaceutical and Medical Packaging Development at Tekni-Plex. “Whereas we have a multitude of barrier polymers in our portfolio, we wanted to opt for the best possible result at the start of this development program”.

Tekni-Films is a leading supplier of blister films for the pharmaceutical, medical, OTC and nutritional markets. In addition to Mono PVC, the company’s product line includes PVdC, Tekniflex COC films, Tekniflex PCTFE (usually referred to as either Aclar® or VapoShield™), plus a wide range of other film products for specialized applications, e.g. Barex® and PETG films and laminates.

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