PDA Announces 2023 Drug Delivery Innovation Award Winners at Universe of Pre-Filled Syringes Conference 12 December, 2023

BETHESDA, Md., Oct. 17, 2023 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- The Parenteral Drug Association (PDA) today announced the winners of the 2023 PDA Drug Delivery Innovation Awards during the opening plenary session of the 2023 PDA Universe of Pre-Filled Syringes and Injection Devices conference in Gothenburg, Sweden. Awardees were recognized for their technical innovations in advancing the field of bio/pharmaceutical manufacturing.

This year's Innovation Award is presented to Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, for the Digital Platform for Enhanced Adherence Tracking. The innovation is a secure and scalable ecosystem helping to monitor real-time data received from auto-injectors. To give doctors better access to autoinjector data, the devices send information to a centralized repository, which, in turn, dispatches data to a healthcare professional web platform and to patients and their caregivers via a mobile app. Doctors and patients rely on those visuals to track whether they are making progress in the patient's medical condition. The system aims to address the most important pain points in the journey of patients, their caregivers, and healthcare professionals without becoming intrusive.

The Partnership Innovation Award is presented to Stevanato Group, Bayer US LLC and Vetter Pharma-Fertigung for the innovation of Diluent PFS for reconstitution and administration of a lyophilized biologic. This partnership innovation involved the close collaboration of the development groups of three parties: the glass barrel manufacturer (Stevanato Group), the diluent PFS manufacturer (Vetter), and the combination product manufacturer (Bayer). The goals of this partnership were to solve a potential compatibility issue with the diluent PFS and biologic drug product and reduce the gliding forces of the diluent PFS during drug product reconstitution. This collaboration highlights the benefits of bringing together stakeholders with their own process expertise to solve a complex issue with a combination product that benefits each of these stakeholders.

"The companies recognized for the 2023 PDA Drug Delivery Innovation Awards are well-deserving of this honor and I congratulate them for their achievements and tireless effort to move the industry forward," said PDA President & CEO Glenn Wright. "They, and all the companies that were considered for this award presented technology innovations that will certainly benefit patients worldwide and for that we are all grateful."

PDA recognizes the award winners each year at its annual Universe of Pre-Filled Syringes and Injection Devices conference, which is held in the U.S. in even years and the EU in odd years.

The PDA Drug Delivery Innovation Awards were created in 2019 to recognize technical innovations advancing the field of bio/pharmaceutical manufacturing. The Innovation Award recognizes a new device, manufacturing process, method, or automation that brings value to the industry; the Partnership Innovation Award recognizes achievement in partnering to successfully launch or introduce a new product to the market or modifying an existing product to make it significantly better or scalable.

The Parenteral Drug Association (PDA) is the leading global provider of science, technology and regulatory information and education for the pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical community. Founded in 1946 as a nonprofit organization, PDA is committed to developing scientifically sound, practical technical information and resources to advance science and regulation through the expertise of over 10,500 members worldwide. PDA is an ANSI accredited Standards Developing Organization. Go to https://www.pda.org/about-pda to learn more.