By Katie Bird , www.cosmeticsdesign-europe.com, 02-Sep-2009

French companies have a lot to offer the US in terms of green packaging, according to French business development agency Ubifrance.

In partnership with the Packaging Machinery Manufacturers Institute (PMMI), the agency is organizing a Franco-US symposium on sustainable packaging in New York on December 14.

‘How to Go Green in Packaging’ is a one day event and will include general information about sustainability during packaging manufacture as well as a number of industry specific workshops looking at cosmetics, pharmaceuticals and food.

Read the full article at: Green packaging event hopes to promote US-Franco trade links.

By Simon Pitman, www.cosmeticsdesign-europe.com, 04-Sep-2009

Luxe Pack opens its doors in Monaco on October 21 and this year will focus a round table to discuss designer and brand identity as well as a full conferencing programme.

One of the highlights of the three day event will be a debate, moderated by Guillaume Bregaras, Former de Luxe editor in chief, which addresses key issues to define this exclusive segment.

The round table discussion will be held on the first day of the event and will tackle the problem of searching for innovative creative ideas that will inspire and seduce consumers, a challenge that is being exacerbated by falling consumer spend in this segment.

Read the full article here: Luxe Pack Monaco focuses on brand identity.

Printed Electronics World  – 2nd Sept 2009

The nineteenth century saw ubiquitous black and white printing. The twentieth century was one of color printing. However, we are now in the century of printed electronics taking over from that. Nowhere will the impact be more obvious than packaging because the new electronics transforms much more than the human interface. It leverages the usefulness of the product itself and performs other functions such as tracking, tracing and reduction of theft and counterfeiting.

via Printed Electronics World: Brand enhancement by electronics in packaging.

02-Sep-2009  www.cosmeticsdesign.com

Cor n starch-based Bioplastics have proved increasingly popular for eco-friendly personal care packaging, but now researchers are investigating ways to enhance potato starch for this purpose.

Corn starch has long been the preferred base for this kind of plastic because the crop can be harvested in large quantities on a global basis. Likewise, the technologies for milling it and processing it in to corn starch are highly developed and readily available.

via Research aims to boost bioplastics from potatoes.

Just seen this article on the BNO twitter site -

Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer to pay $2.3 billion for illegal promotion of products, the largest health care fraud settlement in U.S. history.

That’s a lot of money!