Bowel Cancer screening PillowPac™ has patent granted.
shuttlepac, a specialist manufacturer of high quality, cost-effective packaging solutions in diagnostic testing and clinical research applications, is pleased to announce that their patent for ‘PillowPac™’ has been granted a patent by the European Patent Office Patent no. (3597550).
Ashley Beardsall, Technical Director of shuttlepac, led the PillowPac’s development as part of the English NHS Bowel screening program as a pop return envelope for faecal sample tubes.


Bowel cancer screening can lead to the early diagnosis of people with no symptoms, thus leading to a higher chance of survival from bowel cancer.
shuttlepac designed the PillowPac™ to assist the screening programme to make it simple to return the sample collection tube to the testing lab. It features internal absorbency, a leakproof design and inner pop-up guides to ensure the sample tube stays central for the lab opening machine.
“Combining the product design capabilities of shuttlepac with the engineering expertise of our parent machine company, IBTEC ltd, we have provided another successful solution for mailing samples in the post. shuttlepac are passionate about designing the right product for the application, keeping it simple and cost-effective. Hopefully, this product will lead to more people completing the test, receiving an early diagnosis, and potentially saving lives”. Ian Beardsall, shuttlepac’s Managing Director, commented.
Please visit www.shuttlepac.com/ for further information or contact Alpha Laboratories on 01952 601076 or email websales@shuttlepac.com/
About shuttlepac Ltd
shuttlepac was founded in July 2016 with a vision to design and manufacture cost-effective packaging for the transportation of hazardous medical samples.
Since then, Ian Beardsall joined the company as MD to focus on optimised product design and automated manufacture to ensure that the company can offer high-quality products from a low-cost manufacturing base in the UK.
To do this, the company utilises the machine design and build capabilities of its parent company Ibtec Ltd, which has enabled shuttlepac to introduce new automated manufacturing machinery to complement the innovative product designs it creates.