West Receives Fred Simon Award and Edward Smith Packaging Science Award at 2022 PDA Annual Meeting

We are pleased to announce that our Scientific Insights Lab team members, Liang Fang and Marissa Rase, received the 2021 Fred Simon Award, and its Chief Scientific Officer, Fran DeGrazio, received the 2021 Edward Smith Packaging Science Award at the 2022 PDA Annual Meeting in Dallas.

The Frederick D. Simon Paper of the Year award is presented for the best paper published in the PDA Journal of Pharmaceutical Science and Technology, named in honor of the late Frederick D. Simon. The award-winning paper entitled, “Physicochemical Excipient-Container Interactions in Prefilled Syringes and Their Impact on Syringe Functionality,” studied the chemical interactions between excipients as well as the physical interactions between the excipients and the container and their impact on the functional performance of prefilled syringes. Dr. Liang Fang, Fellow Scientist and Technical Director of West, was the lead author and worked in partnership with Lilly on the published paper. The paper can be found on the PDA website.

The Edward Smith PDA Packaging Science Award was created to recognize outstanding contributions to Pharmaceutical Packaging Science and was awarded to Fran DeGrazio, Chief Scientific Officer of West Pharmaceutical Services. It is presented in honor of Edward Smith and his long-term contributions to pharmaceutical packaging science. 

“Here at West, we are so proud to receive these awards and celebrate the accomplishments of our team members as it represents our almost 100-year history of commitment to being a leader in primary packaging and delivery for our healthcare and drug development partners,” said Chris Ryan, Senior Vice President, Commercial Products and Emerging Markets at West. “We continue to strive to meet the changing needs of our customers and helping to de-risk their therapies and ultimately, helping patients.”