Analyses for distributors of packaging

Determination and documentation of medicinal product packaging data

For several years bifa has been operating an analytical method and a specially developed database system to determine and document medicinal product packaging data on behalf of INTERSEROH Dienstleistungs GmbH (Interseroh). This tool significantly reduces the time and effort required by medicinal product manufacturers to calculate and document the quantities of packaging placed on the market in accordance with the packaging ordinance.

German Packaging Ordinance (VerpackV)

Companies in other industries, who place items subject to mandatory licensing on the market, can now also have analyses carried out by bifa. Blister packaging, bottles, insulin pen needles or pumps, blood glucose meters or test strips are prominent examples from the health sector. Apart from products that are immediately identifiable as packaging, the provisions of the German Packaging Ordinance (VerpackV) also affects items that some companies do not know are by law packaging. For example, if an item such as a syringe is filled with medicine on delivery, this is sufficient to fulfil the property of packaging.

Who pays the fee?

In this case, the party that places the syringe on the market, i.e. the pharmaceutical company, must pay a licence fee to a so-called dual system. This fee is used by disposal service providers, which includes Interseroh, to finance the disposal of sales packaging via the yellow sack (or yellow bin in other states in Germany). An empty syringe on the other hand is not deemed to be packaging and therefore does not need licensing. Since 2009, stricter statutory provisions have applied, which means that the auditors of companies have to check very carefully whether the respective company has licensed all items, deemed to be packaging under the statutory provisions and relevant standards, with a dual system.

German Packaging Ordinance with increasing complexity

In view of the increased complexity, an increasing number of companies are turning to bifa's packaging specialists. These experts analyse the packaging in accordance with the requirements of the packaging ordinance, weigh the individual constituents and material components, and together with the client they draw up the fundamentals for auditor-proof documentation of the packaging placed on the market. It is also important that the samples of the analysed packaging are sufficiently large to ensure the greatest possible statistical validity of the results. After all, differences in the weight of the individual components can occur during production of the packaging – depending on the packaging material, the production plant and other basic conditions.

bifa: certainty and security for all

bifa ensures that the client and their disposal partners can rely on data that satisfies all the required standards.