JRC offers medicine bottle leaching tests
The Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the European Union has released tests and reference materials to help packaging companies improve tests to measure alkali contamination leaching from pharmaceutical glass containers into liquid medicines applied by injection or drip.
The Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the European Union has released tests and reference materials to help packaging companies improve tests to measure alkali contamination leaching from pharmaceutical glass containers into liquid medicines applied by injection or drip.
It is making available 10,000 reusable vials of semi-durable glass for tests.
A JRC note said released trace alkaline substances affect water in which pharmaceutical substances are dissolved, with the solution being 'very sensitive to the pH, so that these traces are sufficient to affect the properties of pharmaceuticals through a slight increase in pH'.
Because previous tests were not sufficiently accurate, glass manufacturers reject thousands of bottles; however, in 'the large majority of cases the glass is good', said the JRC.