Articles

Pharmaceutical packaging has never been under scrutiny as much as it has been during the COVID-19 pandemic. When mainstream news stories emerge about the shortage of glass vials as pharmaceutical companies race to get lifesaving vaccines to market, it’s obvious there’s a big problem. While pharmaceutical packaging isn’t as alluring as the medicines and therapeutics it holds, proper packaging is a critical part of delivering medicine safely to those in need. So what is proper packaging? Up until the past few decades, it’s widely been pharmaceutical-grade glass vials that hold, store and protect medicine from damage, contamination and external factors...

Pandemic-driven interim guidance on compounding is a kinder, gentler version of the 2008 United States Pharmacopeia (USP) Chapter 797 that regulates safety. With the state of the pandemic, it’s just a matter of time before the less restrictive interim rules revert back to their more robust former selves. By preparing for the return to the pre-pandemic USP 797 now, compounding pharmacies and facilities will make the eventual transition much smoother.   Compliance As It Stands Now Though most pharmacies and compounding facilities have tried to adhere to USP 797 guidelines throughout the pandemic, COVID-19 brought on necessary changes to compliance...

SteriTek New Site Update SteriTek’s new 103,000-square-foot facility in Lewisville, Texas, has been unfolding and pushing towards an October 2022 opening date. MediZap is excited to be exclusive partners with this great organization and will support bringing existing and new customers in the compounding industry to this next-generation facility. What is X-Ray Technology? X-Ray uses electromagnetic energy (photons) and provides deeper penetration on more dense drug products/configurations at 15 g/cm2 beyond E-Beam’s 7.5 g/cm2 penetration. The wavelengths are similar to gamma irradiation. Electrons are converted to X-Ray using a tantalum window, while drug product is processed in a bunker to...

The utilization of X-Ray irradiation as an alternate advanced terminal sterilization technique to electron beam irradiation of sterile compound drug products is a pivotal topic of conversation for delivering the most safe and effective drug therapies for patients. The rationale is the boosted capability of modern X-Ray sterilization to penetrate denser packaging configurations adding greater flexibility to the types/formats of drug products that can benefit from the least potential deleterious effects to compounded sterile preparations during terminal sterilization. X-Rays propagate in the same direction as the electrons generating a stream of X-Rays towards the drug product and multiple layers of drug products can be sterilized simultaneously. Of...