West Pharmaceutical Services, a provider of solutions for injectable drug administration, and the international technology group SCHOTT, a primary packaging solutions provider, have entered a partnership to combine the SCHOTT iQ platform with West’s Ready Pack system. The collaboration will initially launch by combining West components and SCHOTT’s adaptiQ high-quality RTU glass vials and will expand to include other convenient, ready-to-use combinations of West and SCHOTT products, to be available on a small-quantity basis.
 
The companies made the announcement at the CPhI Worldwide conference, and shared plans to expand West’s Ready Pack system to include additional SCHOTT glass offerings—including more vial formats as well as ready-to-use cartridges (cartriQ) and pre-fillable glass syringes (syriQ). Further product launch plans will be shared at the Pharmapack meeting in early 2020.
 
“With more than 4,000 new injectable drug products in development worldwide, many of which are in small settings such as universities, medical research institutes, or smaller-sized companies, West appreciates and understands the need to provide ready-to-use, high quality, sterile packaging products in small volumes for developmental and clinical phases,” said Mike Schaefers, vice president and general manager, pharma, West. “Our partnership with SCHOTT now provides our customers with high-quality glass containment options to complement the stoppers, seals and glass alternatives West already provides through its Ready Pack system.”
 
Fabian Stöcker, vice president, global strategy and innovation, SCHOTT Pharmaceutical Systems, said, “Easy and fast access to our broad product portfolio of ready-to-use vials and components not only gives flexibility in the drug development and production process, but also helps to enhance patient’s safety as an overall target. Through this partnership, SCHOTT and West have partnered to provide containment solutions to the market that reduce risk and meet the increasing regulations across the globe. We worked together to pre-test combinations of SCHOTT’s highest quality ISO vials, with West’s high-end sterilized stoppers and seals. Extending this concept to other primary packaging containers such as ready-to-use cartridges and ready-to-use syringes will also benefit our customers using this kind of primary packaging.”
 
West’s Ready Pack system consists of sterilized NovaPure® stoppers, Flip-Off® CCS seals and SCHOTT’s adaptiQ vials. Ready Pack components are provided ready-to-use, from stock, so they are prepared to ship when customers place their order. The combination of West and SCHOTT products is well-suited for Research and Development purposes or for small filling operations.   The Ready Pack system is also scalable, designed to support a smooth transition from early-stage pilot manufacture to larger commercial-scale operations. All Ready Pack components have been tested and proven fit-for-use. This is supported by comprehensive technical data reports, including container closure integrity data, to support manufacturers in their development. West’s Ready Pack system is available to order via West’s online store.
 
SCHOTT’s adaptiQ vials were developed in cooperation with innovative and highly regarded machine suppliers. The vials will be available in various formats with different sterile packaging options such as the clip nest, cup nest and tray solution and can be processed on a wide range of existing and new fill and finish equipment. Nested processing of the vials ensures no glass-to-glass contact of the vials throughout the fill finish process including lyophilization.
 
Forthcoming combinations of the products within the Ready Pack and SCHOTT iQ platforms will extend to customizable configurations in order to meet various requirements, whether changing batch sizes or accommodating different container needs, especially for biologic drugs.  In the near future, West and SCHOTT look forward to growing this partnership through more combined high-quality product offerings leveraging the SCHOTT iQ® portfolio as well as a range of West and Daikyo proprietary packaging components in response to the needs of global customers and ultimately, serving patients.