Wilden Group Receives Package of the Year Award

08/09/06 The Package of the Year Award 2005 in the category “Medical” was awarded to Roche Diagnostics’ Accu-Chek Multiclix lancing system. This award also honors the accomplishment of system supplier Wilden Group. The services that went into creating this product range from product development to engineering, mold making, injection molding, assembly, product finishing and logistics.

The Accu-Chek Multiclix lancing system for diabetics makes self-testing the blood glucose levels easier. In many cases, people with diabetes need to sample their blood several times a day in order to determine their blood glucose. A stress-free testing procedure starts with easy handling and the painless extraction of blood. Roche Diagnostics wished to develop an innovative skin-pricking device with a built-in lancet drum. In cooperation with Wilden Group as a long-standing system supplier and partner, Roche Diagnostics created Accu-Chek Multiclix, the first lancing device with an integrated lancet container. This project revealed the strength of a pool of development expertise at work in the Wilden Group’s Technical CompetenceCenter (TCC). “At our TCC, we offer development, construction, pilot plant, project management as well as mold and special machinery engineering under one roof,” Burkhard Stolz, head of Wilden Group’s Diagnostics and Medical Technology division explains. “This is the only way to create innovative products such as this lancing device within such a short deadline.”

The Accu-Chek Multiclix skin-pricking device is equipped with a drum for comfortable lancet replacement at regular intervals. This is paramount for a hygienic blood sampling process: just one twist reveals a new, ready-to-use lancet. The new technology makes gentle blood extraction even more convenient – any time, any place. The new device also introduces a new level of hygiene due to the fact that the lancet’s needle tips are coated with a soft polymer material to ensure that they remain sterile until they are used for the first time. The needle will penetrate its sterile cover and uncover the tip no sooner than the Accu-Chek Multiclix lancet is released by the user. The fact that users are not faced with a sharp needle prior to or after the pricking process is a major psychological advantage of this new device. Conventional lancing systems require manual insertion of the lancet by the user.

The annual Package of the Year Award was presented by the Food & Drug Packaging magazine, which is published by Stagnito Communications Inc. of Illinois, USA. The prize is awarded to selected companies in the categories of Food, Beverages, Pharmacy, Medical and Body Care. Packaging solutions are nominated by the magazine’s editors based on published articles. In 2005, General Mills and Hormel Foods won awards in the “Food” category, while Diageo was honored for its achievements in the “Beverages” category.

The Target Corporation won the award for its product in the “Pharmacy” category and Procter & Gamble Cosmetics was first in the “Body Care” category. The award for Roche Diagnostics GmbH in the „Medical“ category also means that Wilden Group as a system supplier is honored with one of the most prestigious prizes of the Food & Drug Packaging segment. For Burkhard Stolz, the prize confirms the corporate philosophy of the Wilden Group: “The award proves that the quality of our work contributed to our customer’s success.”
Recently, the Accu-Chek Multiclix lancing device received another award: on April 26th, the German VDI Gesellschaft Kunststofftechnik (VDI-K) presented the „Kunststoff" award for innovative products to Roche Diagnostics GmbH, Weidmann Plastics Technology and Wilden Group. During the ceremony, the organizers also praised the "extraordinarily close cooperation between the involved project partners".