The global label industry looking up for the future
Posted on November 23rd, 2009
Here are some interesting facts about the label industry in North America.
- NA label market is projected to increase to 11 billion dollars by 2013 (bigger than Western Europe and Japan)
- The food market is the biggest contributor to label market, but this expects to change hands to the pharmaceutical market by 2013.
- The US is the biggest producer and consumer of labels.
- Canada consumed 775 million square meters of labels in 2008.
Interestingly enough the reason that the pharmaceutical will end up being the largest player in the label industry is due to all the new and changing regulations that are expected to take effect in the coming years requiring more detailed and extensive material be placed on these labels.
With the changes will also come the need for proper label inspection and packaging inspection tools. Automated inspection solutions will be come more and more important in quality control, regulatory and design departments.
There is more information available in a great article called North America: The World’s Label Powerhouse in the Sept. issue of Flexography Magazine.
Tags: FDA, pharmacetuical quality control, pharmaceutical industry, pharmaceutical labeling, quality control
Posted in Global Vision, Packaging inspection, Pharmaceutical inspection, packaging articles, regulations | No Comments »
Pharmaceutical labels: is the FDA telling the whole truth?
Posted on October 27th, 2009
Would you believe it if we told you that many key drug facts are left off pharmaceutical labels? Some of these facts could be life threatening, as is the case of a specific osteoporosis drug. If the dosage of this drug is increased slightly it could result in death. This critical information was not included on the label. Instead it was hidden in the FDA’s reviews, which are usually hundreds of pages long and filled with medical terms – making it impossible for a patient to find.
The FDA is required to approve the drug if the drug’s ability to prevent or cure a disease outweighs its side effects. It then becomes the responsibility of the pharmaceutical manufacturer to write the label and decide what information should be included. These labels have been known to play up the benefits and leave out harmful side effects. As the FDA is still responsible for approving the final label, drug experts are asking them to make this type of critical information more accessible to the public and to doctors alike. Fact boxes is what some experts are recommending. Dr. Lisa Schwartz and Dr. Steven Woloshin say that this will help patients to make more informed decisions, after all it is their health and they have a right to know!
See what else they are saying in Therapeutics Daily.
Tags: FDA, pharmaceutical, pharmaceutical labeling
Posted in FDA, Label inspection, packaging articles | No Comments »
