Daikyo Crystal Zenith® Polymer: How does it compare to other plastic packaging material?

Part I

This is a first in a two part series dedicated to the origins and attributes of the Daikyo Crystal Zenith® Polymer 

In the early 1990s, Masamichi Sudo, founder and past president of Daikyo Seiko, Ltd., first developed the Daikyo Crystal Zenith polymer. This custom formulated cyclic olefenic polymer, available today in the Daikyo Crystal Zenith (CZ) portfolio of products offered by West, represents his lifelong ambition to improve all aspects of parenteral packaging and commitment to delivering the most precise formulation to the marketplace.

Mr. Sudo started his endeavor by creating reliable elastomeric closure solutions like B-2 lubricious coating and Flurotec® barrier film, a fluropolymer film lamination to protect both elastomer and drug product from each other. Enormously successful, these technologies led the way for Mr. Sudo to turn his attention to the nagging problems related to him by clients who were dissatisfied with glass and other vessel materials such as polypropylene and polyethylene.

Working with one of the world leading polymer suppliers, Mr. Sudo rejected formulation after formulation in a demanding search for the perfect pharmaceutical container. He sought after a material which would safely contain his clients life-saving drug products without changing it in any way. In addition, he demanded robustness so that physical damage would be a thing of the past. Just like the glass vial, rubber stopper and metal seal system replaced the glass ampoule on a grand scale, he hoped that the new material would supplant these legacy materials to the benefit of patients around the world. Finally, after years of empirical study of various polymer recipes, Mr. Sudo was satisfied with what we now know as the Daikyo Crystal Zenith polymer, or simply CZ.

Check out the West blog next week to learn more about CZ’s properties and the ways in which CZ compares to glass.