Essentra Packaging, part of FTSE 250 group Essentra PLC (LSE:ESNT), has made public a collaboration with Advanced Material Development (AMD), developing new smart packaging technology for the pharmaceutical sector.
The pair will work on a new generation of time temperature indicators (TTIs), which are smart labels that show if a product has been subjected to excessive temperatures and for how long.
Allied to Essentra Packaging’s specialist industry knowledge from its focus on the pharmaceutical and healthcare markets, AMD said it is leveraging its technology knowledge and advances in the field of colour-changing polymeric photonic crystals.
AMD’s work in photonic crystals is led by chief scientific officer Dr Izabela Jurewicz, developed by the company’s research teams at the Universities of Surrey and Sussex.
For Essentra, the pharmaceutical packaging priorities are patient safety and agile supply, with any new packaging technology required to be “simple to implement in order to drive real change”.
Tiffany Overstreet, Essentra Packaging’s innovation & sustainability director, said: “When it comes to smart packaging technology, we are all looking to where the next great wave of innovation will come from.
“Rather than spectate, we are taking the lead through this collaboration with AMD. We’re aiming to break new ground, and better support our customers in the pharmaceutical sector, now and into the future.”
She said TTIs are often cost-prohibitive to implement, which is a major hurdles for a technology that is important for patient safety.
“We want to change that from the ground up – we’re taking tomorrow’s pharma packaging technology and shaping it into something today’s packaging designers can access. What we are creating is new to today’s market and we’re proud to be working with a true industry force in AMD."
AMD’s Jurewicz added: “What distinguishes our TTI technology is its ability to be customised according to the application or need.
“The AMD ‘nLight’ photonic crystal platform offers extreme tuneability and adaptability, to give truly market-leading performance."
AMD chief executive John Lee said the packaging solutions have “excellent potential in a wide array of end markets and applications” and their cost-effective nature should drive more ubiquitous use of such technology in and outside of the pharmaceutical sector.
“To be working with Essentra as a global leader in this space is a huge milestone for AMD," Lee said.