MeadWestvaco Corporation (NYSE: MWV), a global leader in packaging and packaging solutions, will present at the 2014 CPhI Worldwide meeting in Paris on Wednesday, Oct. 8 at 1:15 p.m. The presentation, titled “Child Resistance in Pharmaceutical Packaging,” will be given by Hung Le, vice president, Global Innovation Engagement, MWV Home, Health & Beauty. At the event, MWV will also highlight the opening of its newly expanded pharmaceutical Manufacturing Center of Excellence in Hemer, Germany.

During Le’s presentation, he will address how poisoning is the third leading cause of unintentional injury deaths in children and accounts for 3,000 deaths or 7 percent of all unintentional injury deaths per year in the European region.i Child-resistant (CR) medication packaging is one of the best-documented successes in preventing the unintentional poisoning of children.ii

“It is important for brands to consider child-resistant packaging for medications, even if regional regulations do not dictate strict standards,” Le said. “In addition to providing valuable protection, child-resistant packaging designs can be consumer-friendly when the solution is based on research and insights.”

In his presentation, Le will discuss how insights-based CR medication packaging provides a positive usage experience. MWV’s recent international packaging satisfaction study, “Packaging Matters,” found that consumers’ interactions with packaging can impact purchasing behavior. Le will also explore geographic and industry trends in CR packaging.

To build on its commitment to developing medication packaging that meets both patient and customer needs, including CR packaging, MWV Healthcare is announcing its newly expanded Manufacturing Center of Excellence in Hemer, Germany. The Center of Excellence will serve as the core of MWV’s global pharmaceutical dispensing systems manufacturing network and will support the launch of a new child-resistant nasal pump in late 2014.

“The expansion of the Center of Excellence builds on MWV’s position as a leader in healthcare dispensing systems,” said Sven-Uwe Höhm, vice president and general manager, MWV Healthcare Dispensing Systems. “We are committed to manufacturing high-quality products that support our customers’ business needs and improve patients’ usage experience with the medications they need in order to be healthy.”

Media are invited to the conference, and executives are available for interviews about the presentation and Hemer facility expansion, including Hung Le, Sven-Uwe Höhm and Stacy Buchanan, the strategic marketing director of MWV Healthcare Dispensing Systems.

MWV will be at Booth 2H60, where its Healthcare Adherence, Secondary Packaging and Dispensing Systems will be featured, with products including Med-Easy®, Dosepak Express® with Optilock® technology, PFP-N and HiMark™.

About MWV

MeadWestvaco Corporation (NYSE: MWV) is a global packaging company providing innovative solutions to the world’s most admired brands in the healthcare, beauty and personal care, food, beverage, home and garden, and agricultural industries. The company also produces specialty chemicals for the automotive, energy, and infrastructure industries and maximizes the value of its development land holdings. MWV’s network of 125 facilities and 16,000 employees spans North America, South America, Europe and Asia. Learn more at mwv.com.

i European Report on Child Injury Prevention ed. Dinesh Sethi et al. World Health Organization, Europe 2008.
ii World Report On Child Injury Prevention ed. Margie Peden et al. World Health Organization 2008.