A Smaller Environmental Footprint for Neulasta^® (pegfilgrastim) Onpro^® Kit

As a company with a with a history of innovation, we know that progress sometimes happens step by step, rather than in leaps and bounds. We believe in continuous improvement and seek every opportunity to innovate and evolve.

In 2016, we needed to retool the packaging for the Neulasta^® Onpro^® kit to accommodate a new product configuration. We saw this as an excellent opportunity to reduce the footprint of the packaging at the same time. We had two main questions we wanted to answer—how can we reduce the amount of warehouse space occupied by the medicine for our customers and how can we use fewer materials in the packaging for the environment?

Through brainstorming and energetic collaboration, our team devised multiple solutions to these questions delivering a variety of important benefits. The packaging now uses 32 percent less paperboard and 68 percent less plastic. The new solution results in a 50 percent reduction in carton closure material usage. With the smaller size package, we can now fit 33 percent more kits on a pallet. All of these changes add up to big gains for environmental sustainability.

Amgen uses a Green Packaging Design rating system to assess opportunities to make environmentally responsible choices for the secondary packaging of our products. We will continue to seek opportunities like this one with Neulasta to make our packaging both greener and more customer friendly.