Teva Pharmaceuticals, the world's largest manufacturer of generic drugs, is saving $150,000 annually at its Sellersville, Pa., facility following a switch from desiccant canisters to packets.

  The facility manufactures approximately 20 million packaged units per year, most of it geared to major chain drug stores. Teva had been experiencing line speed and reliability challenges with desiccant canisters before switching to a high-speed automated desiccant packet system from Multisorb Technologies Inc. and Active-Pak Automation (APA). The new system began operation last June.

  Reliable desiccant insertion is critical for pharmaceutical packaging, as moisture protection is often required for product stability, particularly for certain drug classes. Teva's line of heart medications such as Enalapril Maleate and Moexipril HC1 are especially prone to moisture-induced degradation.

  Teva had been using 0.75-gram, 1-gram, and 2-gram desiccant canisters. However, hopper jams and line downtime prevented Teva from running its automated insertion equipment at top speeds, and canister supply shortages posed a constant threat. Automated canister insertion averaged only 25 to 75 bottles per minute depending on bottle size.

  As a result of switching to Multisorb's StripPax Sorbent packets using packet insertion equipment supplied by ActivePak Automation, a division of Multisorb, Teva can now perform high-speed, reliable desiccant packet insertion at up to 300 bottles per minute.

"We were experiencing supply and cost issues with desiccant canisters, and changing over to packets has improved reliability and made a lot of sense economically," says Wayne Kieffer, senior buyer at Teva Pharmaceuticals USA. Kieffer pitched the idea of incorporating the new system to Teva's packaging engineers in early 2003. Although some lines are still using remaining canisters in stock, Kieffer reports that most product lines have now switched over to packets.