Bemis Company, Inc. (Bemis.com), a major supplier of packaging used by leading food, consumer products, and healthcare companies worldwide, has responded to the recently-announced discontinuation of Barex resin with commercially-available alternatives to Barex resin-based packaging. The Barex brand supplier recently announced the closure of its only Barex polyacrylonitrile resin manufacturing site. Barex resin is commonly used as a barrier layer for certain demanding packaging applications for healthcare, food, non-food, and industrial products.

“Bemis offers a family of film technologies that replaces Barex resin-based packaging for a wide variety of applications,” says William E. Jackson, vice president and Chief Technology Officer of Bemis Company. “Over the years, we have assisted several customers in transitioning from Barex resin-based packaging to our proprietary solutions that provide a superior oxygen and moisture barrier in food packaging applications. Our polyester sealants have also proven effective for pharmaceutical applications for which an alternative to Barex materials was important.

“Our product development team is now introducing a new sealant structure, CXB™, which expands our family of Barex replacement products and is specifically designed for the healthcare market. This new sealant is incorporated into a proprietary laminated structure designed to deliver effective chemical resistance and low absorption rates, exhibiting low reactivity with the medical-grade chemical contents of the package. This new film structure responds directly to our customers’ needs for superior sealant strength, barrier properties, and inertness necessary to protect sensitive transdermal packaging and biomedical device applications.”