Sustainability: A Talking Point at the SAE Media Pre-Filled Syringe Conference

Sally Maclachlan Januar 24, 2023

Kamaal de Silva, Senior Mechanical Engineer, gives us the details about the show:

I was delighted to have the pleasure of attending SAE Media’s Pre-Filled Syringes and Injectable Drug Devices conference. The presentations were high quality, providing valuable insights into the current state of the industry.

Sustainability was a prominent theme throughout the conference. Steve Hoare, from the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry and chair of the first morning session, gave a talk outlining the strengths and weaknesses of current approaches to circularity in the medical device industry, leading to an engaging panel discussion on the topic.

For the first time in this conference, concurrent parallel streams gave attendees a choice of talks to join. Large-volume drug delivery was one such area:

  • Claus Geiger from Sanofi, chairing the stream, started with the pharmaceutical perspective regarding limitations in concentrations of protein formulations delivered subcutaneously, and the effect this has on drug stability and viscosity.
  • We then heard Cécile Gross from Nemera and Adam Kalbermatten from BD describe how their devices currently attempt to push the envelope to meet this need.
  • Eleanor Kimber described GSK’s current approach to device platform development to increase their combination product portfolio more efficiently.

Connected devices also had a specific stream on Day 2, with Bjørg Kaae Hunter from Novo Nordisk chairing:

  • Marc Moal and Salim Bouaidat took us through Novo’s learnings in this area – NovoPen 6 using NFC and Dialoq using Bluetooth.
  • It was great to hear about risk management under MDR for connected devices from someone leading the implementation of EU MDR at Bayer, Dr. Fatima Bennai-Sanfourche.
  • I was also pleasantly surprised to hear ChatGPT mentioned by Blaine Martin from Merck as a potential new technology that could become part of healthcare apps and services in the future.

All in all, it was an engaging conference with very topical issues discussed.

Get in touch today to find out how we can help with your drug delivery device development.