By: Gerald E. Finken
Being a pharmacist has always given me a unique insight into healthcare, especially as my career took me into the packaging and labeling of clinical supplies. I was always able to think about the packaging and labeling of clinical supplies from a different perspective, both as a trained employee as well as a licensed pharmacist. Spending over 30 years in the clinical supplies space has also provided me with the opportunity to see firsthand many of the obstacles that made the packing and labeling of clinical supplies time consuming, costly, and wasteful.
My career has been focused on constantly improving how clinical supplies are packaged, labeled, and dispensed. For instance, in the early 1980’s while at E.R. Squibb & Sons, I created a set of work instructions for the packaging and labeling of a blinded phase III study. Prior to this, most companies were using lab notebooks for documentation. My mentor and boss at that time, Mike DePhilippo, thought this was an excellent idea and took it to the newly formed IMDG group. It was not long after this that pharma moved the packaging and labeling of clinical supplies under the GMP umbrella—for both good and not-so-good.
Several years after moving clinical supplies under the GMP umbrella companies started outsourcing the packaging and labeling of clinical supplies to GMP manufacturers such a PACO and PCI. This was not an ideal situation as clinical supplies were not high-speed endeavors nor top priority. It was at that time that I teamed up with Kevin Flanagan to form National Packaging Systems, the first ever 100%-focused clinical supplies packaging and labeling company. This facility was located in Allentown, PA and became the world’s largest clinical supplies packaging and labeling company. Although this endeavor did not work out for me the way I thought it would, it was a great learning experience.
