New regulations aimed at greater patient safety, the protection of operators from an active agent, strict travel restrictions and an increasing demand: the Orion Group faced a number of challenges in selecting a new blister line for its plant in Turku, Finland. Orion found the solution together with Uhlmann Pac- Systeme GmbH & Co KG.

As the Finnish market leader in human and veterinary medicine, Orion Group develops, produces and markets active pharmaceutical ingredients. For this reason, EMA regulation EMA/587673/2019, which is set to come into force in late 2023, is also relevant to Orion. 

In order to achieve greater patient protection, the successful cancer drug Methotrexate Orion is to be offered not only in bottles of 100 tablets, but also in smaller units. The child-resistant blisters containing four, ten or twelve tablets will benefit, for example, patients with psoriasis or rheumatoid arthritis which are prescribed Methotrexate Orion at a lower dose. In addition to the regulatory requirements, Orion also needed increased capacity in terms of pharma packaging to cope with the increasing demand for Methotrexate.

The company has been working with Uhlmann since the early 2000s and Orion was also familiar with the planned BEC 300 blister line, as it already had two identical systems.

With the BEC 300 at its core, Uhlmann implemented a complete line concept from blister machine to palletizer. The entire line is operated via uniform HMI control unit touch screens. Together with Orion, Uhlmann also designed a containment filling line with negative pressure to protect the operators from the active ingredient. Added to this was the integration of the “Track & Trace” system used at Orion, as well as a cover foil printer which, due to its size of 1.5 by 1.5 metres, had to be placed next to the line rather than on it.