| By Grace Zhang |
| Tuesday, 06 May 2008 |
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To address the issue, the China Pharmaceutical Packing Association on April 11 held a symposium in Beijing to discuss the potential safety concerns in drug use arising from the reduced diameters of glass bottle mouths and rubber stoppers. The association also sought to solicit opinions from the industry concerning standards for the size and design of glass infusion bottles and butyl rubber stoppers for medical use, in a move to standardize manufacturing protocols.
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Major infusion and butyl rubber stopper manufacturers in China attended the symposium. According to a spokesperson from an infusion enterprise, packaging accounts for 80% of an infusion maker’s costs, while the profit from an infusion bottle is quite thin. |
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As a result, makers, under great pressure from the market, are forced to make changes to the size of glass bottle mouths and stoppers to reduce costs. The cost reduction from the smaller rubber stoppers represents a large sum of money for an enterprise with an annual sales volume of some five billion infusion bottles, said the general manager of a Guizhou province-based pharmaceutical producer, adding that the “improvement” has been proven effective and accepted by the market after a series of tests under demanding conditions.
However, most of the attendees expressed their concerns over the change. The chief engineer at Jiangsu province-based Nantong Yaorong Glass noted that the smaller glass bottle mouths can lead to an increased incidence of cracks, which are not readily visible to the naked eye; while some others pointed out |
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that it is difficult to properly wash the insides of glass bottles whose mouths have reduced diameters, and emphasized that pharmaceutical producers should pay more attention to quality and safety rather than focus solely on costs.
As a representative from an organization that are actual users of the bottles, Ying Lan, secretary general at Beijing Nurses Association, pointed out that the change raises issues for the end users in terms of functionality, air-tightness and quality.
Most of the makers present agreed that a unified standard for bottle mouths and stoppers should be set up, so as to guarantee the safety of drug use. The makers, however, still disagree over whether the standard should be compulsory or voluntary.
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