See which Pittsburgh companies made Time Magazine’s best inventions list

PITTSBURGH — Pittsburgh notched some honors in Time Magazine’s annual Best Inventions issue.

Time included local startup Parcel Health in the Medical and Healthcare category for its Tully Tube, a sustainable pill bottle that has been used by Allegheny Health Network and UPMC, as well as by a number of health systems beyond the region. The startup was co-founded by CEO Melinda Su-En Lee and COO Mallory Barrett, who estimate that the sustainable pill bottle reduces plastic by 71% compared to traditional orange vials.

“Through my work as a pharmacist, I saw firsthand just how much plastic is used in pharmacy operations and understood that almost none of it was actually being recycled,” Su-En Lee said in a prepared statement. “The orange amber vial has been one of the most recognizable objects in healthcare since 1962. For the next generation, that will no longer be true. We are working to make the amber plastic vial a relic of the past.”