West: 100 Years of Injectable Medicine Excellence

West Pharmaceutical Services is a leading provider of innovative, high-quality injectable solutions and services and a trusted partner to established and emerging drug developers.
West has more than 10,000 team members across 50 sites worldwide, and supports customers by delivering approximately 47 billion components and devices each year.
“This year is our 100 year anniversary, a milestone we are very proud of.” says David Maier, Vice President & General Manager, Global Generics Market Unit at West. “Every product has a patient’s name on it.”
West’s products range from stoppers and seals for injectable packaging systems, to self-injection and reconstitution systems. The company plays a key role in supporting vaccine manufactures through supplying high performing containment systems, scalable packaging, and regulatory support.
Speaking to the PharmaSource podcast David explains that during the COVID-19 pandemic, West components were used in the majority of vaccines on the market.
“We supported the delivery of over 8 billion doses of vaccine. This required significant efforts to ramp up production and to shift priorities in order to put enough capacity online.”

Sustainability through partnerships

“Collaboration between vendors and customers is critical if the pharma industry is to address emissions, energy usage, water usage and waste reduction.” says David.
“West takes a concerted, cooperative approach with our customers and other stakeholders to work together to achieve ESG targets. This includes investigating shared power purchase agreements, researching more sustainable materials, exploring more efficient shipping methods, and studying beneficial reuses of our products.”
West have announced a new sustainable technology as part of their long-term collaboration with Corning.
West is the exclusive distributor of Corning Viridian™ Vial Technology, a drop-in solution that can reduce vial manufacturing CO2e emissions and material waste while enabling faster and safer fill-finish operations.

“Viridian Vials reduce pharmaceutical glass waste-to-landfill by 20% and vial lifecycle CO2e emissions by approximately 30%​ compared to standard vials.”

In addition, West are finalists for their FluroTec® 5-10mL Cartridge Plunger, NovaPure® Stoppers & Flip-Off® CCS Seal technology for large volume injections.

Key trend for 2024: GMP Annex 1 in Europe

David highlights that a major trend to be aware of is that regulators around the world are demanding increasing levels of quality, including changes to the GMP Annex 1 in Europe.
“The European Union is not the only territory where the bar of expectation is being raised when it comes to regulatory standards for particulates. "
A deliberate and well-documented contamination control strategy is one of the new focuses in the EU GMP Annex 1 revision. West is well-positioned to help partners prepare for these regulatory changes, says David.

Key trend for 2024: Home-Based Healthcare Market Expansion

Another major trend is the way the home-based healthcare market is expanding, driven by patient demand for more convenient treatment options.
David explains that West’s on-body platform SmartDose® was the first large-volume wearable to be approved as a combination product by the FDA and has since evolved with multiple generations and different sizes.
“SmartDose® helps to provide patients with confidence in their therapy as it is designed to reduce the need for frequent visits to infusion centres. The technology has been approved for use in four different therapies in the market.”
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