V-OVS® next: Setting a New Standard for Luer Lock Syringe Closure Systems

For decades, syringe closure systems like Vetter’s V-OVS® have helped shape the parenteral product market. Soon, this important category will take an important step forward with V-OVS® next: an innovative new design inspired by real-world user experience and shifting customer and user needs.

Unveiled at Pharmapack 2025, this evolution of our proven system is already generating interest and excitement across the parenteral product segment. Here’s a closer look at how this evolution took shape, its user-centric design, and its upcoming path to market. 

Today’s closures typically need to meet a range of requirements to address the specific indications or markets they may be designed for: from essential protections for product integrity and security, to intuitive design and functionality, to detailed documentation. 

The V-OVS® system has fulfilled these requirements for a wide range of Vetter customers who have adopted a Luer Lock system, providing strong differentiation, a premium look, and advanced functionality for products with many different indications. In the many years V-OVS® has been available, it has sustained high market acceptance, continuous volume uptake, and longstanding partnerships.

In a market like Vetter’s, though, it takes purposeful evolution to keep our customers a step ahead. And that’s exactly what they can achieve with V-OVS® next.

The new version of Vetter’s proven system was inspired by decades of valuable user feedback and real-world experience. These inputs have guided innovative updates that will support many more successful applications.

V-OVS® next will now offer multiple advantages that set a new standard of functionality for Luer Lock closure systems. The evolved design will be:

• Even easier to open, with an updated format that supports correct handling and simplifies the opening process
• Even more functional, thanks to new internal features that may help prevent accidental drug spillage in challenging opening scenarios
• Even more versatile, with a streamlined size that provides an optimal fit for a broad range of syringes

Together, these new advances will make V-OVS® next our most user-friendly syringe closure yet, as well as a product that helps set our customers’ therapies apart in an increasingly competitive market.

To develop V-OVS® next, Vetter followed a best-practice strategy with clearly defined requirements, a robust proof of concept, and rigorous user studies. Multiple key suppliers were also involved in the process, along with pharma customers and current V-OVS® users—all of whom offered valuable input on the usability, functionality, and processability parameters for the new design.

At the same time, we also applied a new virtual concept testing approach that enabled us to rapidly develop and evaluate many different iterations to identify an optimized design. This approach involved three key steps: 

1. Ideation & concept draft: During this initial phase, our team explored multiple potential parts and alterations and developed evaluable CAD drawings for each.
2. Virtual concept evaluation: After consolidating our concepts, we use our digital designs to conduct detailed mold flow analyses of the materials in complex tool configurations and Finite Element Method analyses to simulate functional tests on glass syringes. These tests enabled us to virtually identify the right concept to move forward with.
3. Prototype tooling: Once a concept was approved, we selected appropriate parts and conducted robust functional and usability testing.  

This methodology made it possible to execute numerous concept cycles in a relatively short timeframe, enabling Vetter to accelerate the path to a definitive version for further external testing.

As part of our continuing development strategy, Vetter also recently completed a highly successful formative study that delivered strong positive feedback from representative users: a group of male and female nurses with varying experience levels.

The purpose of the study was to gather direct feedback on the product, especially the operating concept for opening the syringe and attaching the needle. Test users had consistently high opinions of V-OVS® next, both solo and compared with the original V-OVS®.

Their feedback has already informed some slight design changes implemented in the latest design iteration. Further formative testing will be conducted shortly, that will help guide product finalization.

What’s next: Commercialization pathway for V-OVS® next

Thanks to several factors—including demonstrated success in many applications—Vetter has been able to put V-OVS® next on a very efficient path to market. Both V-OVS® closures also use the same contact materials, so no additional stability studies will be needed to transition between versions. 

With these tailwinds, we expect to lock the design for production in 2025, complete the industrialization process within the next two years, and launch commercially in 2027. At that point Vetter will continue supporting both V-OVS® and V-OVS® next, enabling our customers to select the option that best fits their needs.