Trends in Pharmaceutical Packaging
The pharmaceutical packaging market is constantly advancing and has experienced annual growth of at least five percent per annum in the past few years. The market is now reckoned to be worth over $20 billion a year. As with most other packaged goods, pharmaceuticals need reliable and speedy packaging solutions that deliver a combination of product protection, quality, tamper evidence, patient comfort and security needs. Constant innovations such as blow-fill-seal (BFS) vials, anti-counterfeit measures, plasma impulse chemical vapor deposition (PICVD) coating technology, snap-off ampoules, unit-dose vials, two-in-one prefilled vials, prefilled syringes, and child-resistant packs all have a direct impact on the packaging.
Traditionally, the majority of medicines (51%) have been taken orally by tablets or capsules, which are either packed in blister packs (very common in Europe and Asia) or fed into plastic pharmaceutical bottles (especially in the US). Powders, pastilles and liquids are also part of oral medicine intake. However, other methods for taking medicines are on the rise, including parenteral or intravenous (29%), inhalation (17%), and transdermal (3%) methods.
It gets complicated
These and related changes have made a big impact on the pharmaceutical packaging industry, driving a need to provide tailored, individual packaging solutions to ensure the effectiveness of medicines. For example, an increase in the number of some biopharmaceutical drugs has increased in the need for packaging of injectable medications and for dosage administration systems. Similarly, because older glass and elastomer closure systems may not provide the effective barrier properties needed for high-value, life saving therapies, component manufacturers have responded with new materials and technologies that ensure extended drug-product shelf-life. Both the primary and secondary packaging must be effective and consumer/patient-friendly.
Especially for over-the-counter products, but also for prescription medications, packaging and delivery systems are a differentiator for pharmaceutical products and will become more important, especially with respect to solving industry-wide problems such as counterfeiting. The market today is receptive to packaging systems that can provide track-and-trace capabilities and product authentication throughout the supply chain. Pharmaceutical seals (secure, often tamper-evident closures) are an ideal platform for these technologies. The wider use of technologies such as RFID tags or ultraviolet inks applied to the seal that provide item-level security are becoming more common. And of course cleanliness and purity will remain a priority.
Although predicting the future is problematic, one prediction can be made with confidence: as pharmaceutical research continues to develop advanced, life-saving therapies, the systems used to package and administer those therapies will need to keep pace through advances in material science and innovative design.
In this age of globalization, it will be a challenge for the packaging industry to maintain international standards and quality. As such, it is necessary that the packaging industry take a holistic approach to packaging that goes beyond the functional aspect of packaging. Presently, only a few pharmaceutical industries invest time and money on R & D for packaging. Yet, the conventional packages available do not always serve the purpose of providing protection against counterfeiting and quality, and the industry seems to be sluggish in adopting the technical advances in packaging, probably due to the high costs involved. However, when the packaging industry is either directly or indirectly involved in the drug manufacturing process, it becomes ethically mandatory to understand and incorporate scientific methods in packaging. The pharmaceutical packaging industry is on the verge of innovative and rapid growth, provided the needs of products, security, cost, and patient convenience are also taken into consideration in the pursuit of brand identity.
