COC Proves Itself in Pharmaceutical Package

A new package for Actonel Once-a-Week tablets marks the first use of cyclic olefin copolymer (COC) in a commercial pharmaceutical blister card developed in the United States. The Actonel COC-based blister film received U.S. FDA approval in November 2002, the first such approval for a drug packaged in a film containing COC.

The blister material is Klockner Pentaplast’s Pentapharm COC 240 P/03 film. It is a clear, multilayer laminate with polypropylene outer layers and a core of Topas COC barrier material from Ticona.

“The COC-based blister film processes much like polyvinyl chloride (PVC) film,” says Kent Sides, business manager for pharmaceutical films at Klockner Pentaplast. “It forms uniform blister cavities and can be run on blister machines without new tooling.”

Topas COC has much higher water vapor barrier properties than PVC, and contains no halogen. Pentapharm COC 240 P/03 “is an interesting hybrid,” says Sides. “It gives pharmaceutical companies a time-tested polypropylene surface without the processing drawbacks of thick polypropylene monolayer films.”

Beyond blister drug packaging, Sides suggests the COC-based films could also be used in blister packs for medical devices, over-the-counter medications and cosmetics.

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