New IVD Applications Demand Smart Sorbents

By Adrian Possumato, Global Director, Healthcare Packaging Multisorb Technologies

Dropping a sorbent into in vitro diagnostic (IVD) product packaging is a proven method for preventing product damage from moisture and maintaining shelf life and IVD product accuracy. New IVD devices and packaging confi gurations, coupled with the ever-present pressures to speed new IVD products to market, often require that sorbents become intelligent. Rather than simply serving as a moisture absorber, sorbents must fit the role of environmental managers, providing a specific range or steadystate level of protection to IVD product packaging that is increasingly taking different and more innovative shapes.

An intelligent sorbent is designed to provide a specific management outcome, which could be controlling the level of moisture, oxygen, or hydrocarbons in a product's packaging system. In some cases a sorbent must carry out multiple protective functions. A sorbent might maintain a specifi c humidity range to maintain an IVD product's stability, or reduce or eliminate volatilized hydrocarbons.