MedPharmPlast Europe
On the 2nd of October 2013, EuPC held the first European meeting of MedPharmPlast Europe in Brussels with the support of the French and Belgian Plastics Federations and the participation of the EU Commission, on the medical and pharmaceutical plastics devices markets.
The objective of the new group is to create the platform where companies involved in plastics for medical devices and pharmaceutical packaging can meet, discuss and share information at European level.
Around 40 participants attended the event showing the industry interest in having a European group for this market. Although a lot of organizations already exist for medical devices manufacturers, nothing exists to represent the interest of plastics and plastics converters.
The Medical markets represent strong growth opportunities whilst getting more mature but still some challenges should be faced by the industry: strong international competition, substances issues, small volumes of raw materials and an extremely complex and rapidly changing regulatory framework.
The different comments and exchanges of the meeting resulted in the EuPC Position Paper regarding the recent proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on medical devices, and amending Directive 2001/83/EC, Regulation (EC) No 178/2002 and Regulation (EC) No 1223/2009, aiming at banning lots of chemical substances in Medical Devices. The plenary vote is planned for 22 October 2013. EuPC has already asked and obtained from the European Commission the right to represent plastics for medical devices through a direct participation in the European Medical Devices Expert Group.
EuPC calls to the EU plastics companies producing medical devices and pharmaceutical packaging to join MedPharmPlast Europe in order to create a strong group to work together and defend the interest of the industry.