The pharma packaging industry in India is fast growing and needs to give thrust on R&D to further enhance the already booming sector, says B.K Karna, director, Packaging Clinic and Research Institute at Hyderabad.
With the fast emergence of industrial growth in India, the packaging industry too has picked up momentum. Especially the booming pharmaceutical and food processing industry have created a huge demand for advanced packaging in the country. At present the packaging industry in India is dominated both by the organized and unorganized sectors and is growing at a compounded annual growth rate of 15 per cent while the global growth is much behind at just 5 per cent.
According to industry sources, the total annual turnover of packaging industry in the year 2006 was estimated at Rs. 1600 crore with a constant 15 per cent annual growth the packaging industry is expected to have an annual turnover of more than Rs. 4000 crore in 2013-14.
“As the packaging industry in India offers huge potential we need to focus our energies on innovation and development of advanced packaging machinery. At present India is heavily depending on imported pharma packaging machinery, it’s time that our engineers and scientists should do reverse engineering to develop more advanced and cost effective technology for pharma packaging,” said Karna.
Stressing further Karna pointed out that, India needs more packaging professionals as the industry is having a dearth of well trained packaging manpower in the country. At present majority of the industry appoints unskilled and untrained manpower which may give rise to possible contaminations and product loss during packaging.
According to Dr Sanjay Chotopadyaya, professor and additional director at IIP Mumbai, the Indian packaging needs to have more well trained professionals for testing and quality evaluation of packaging materials.
Pharma packaging
As the pharma industry is highly regulated, it needs to have a very robust and a foolproof packaging material that can withstand the stipulated temperature and other parameters that need to be controlled for retaining the efficacy and safety of the life-saving drugs.
For packing the medicinal products, pharma manufacturers use various types of glass, PET bottles, strip and blister packs, injectable and ampoules. At present in India, the western regions of the country like Maharashtra and Gujarat are dominating the pharma packaging sector, as these regions are witnessing a booming growth of the pharma industry. The region alone generates about 80 per cent of the total revenue of pharma industry in the country.
Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu are the other regions from south that are fast catching up with the western region. With more formulation companies coming up in SEZs of AP and Tamil Nadu, it is expected that the packaging industry will also have a double growth in the coming days.
Earlier, pharma packaging was meant for containing products but today with advanced technology, it helps increase the shelf life of products. With growing number of pharmaceutical products and increased demand for Indian drugs overseas, packaging industry has received its much-needed fillip.
Though India is dependent on imports for advanced packaging materials and machinery, the domestic industry too has been evolving over the years. At present there are a few Indian companies which have developed advanced packaging technology on par with global companies and even serving the packaging needs of overseas clients.
“To boost the Indian packaging industry, government of India is also supporting the packaging sector by way of giving sponsorship for training professionals and even supporting entrepreneurs to do reverse engineering for developing advanced packaging technology within the country,” added Dr. Sanjay.
Safety is one of the foremost issues that concerns packaging. Particularly in pharma and medicinal products packaging plays a vital role in keeping safe a life-saving product. Of late, the plastic products that are used to package a certain type of medicine have become a matter of debate among the regulators and industry experts. In view of this, the central government has set up an expert panel to examine if plastic and Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) bottles used for packaging pharma products are safe. The Drug Technical Advisory Board, the apex body on drug safety, has recommended in a recent meeting that a scientific expert committee should examine whether the use of plastic or PET bottle for primary packaging pose a risk to the public health.
Advances in packaging
Unlike in the past, recent advances in pharma/biopharma drug discovery and development along with increasingly varied types of products in the market have had a significant impact on packaging equipment needs today.
Apart from upholding safety and security, the packaging materials should also address the anti-counterfeiting and inspection technology. Fast production rates, changeover time, maintenance, and factors such as expensive and potent drug product and smaller batch sizes have heightened the need for new capabilities in the fill/finish process.
Additionally, space constraints have packagers seeking equipment with a smaller footprint. The incorporation of more advanced equipment technology is evident at all levels. Whether a pharma/biopharma company is filling/finishing its own products or outsourcing to contract manufacturers and packagers, the need for more flexible equipment to accommodate an expanded range of products has become essential.
To keep pace with packaging needs, the equipment manufacturers have had to enhance automation, increase productivity and boost user friendliness, while decreasing size.
The latest advances in pharma/biopharma packaging equipment encompass enhanced robotics, anti-counterfeiting and inspection technology/track & trace systems, as well as advances in Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE).
According to industry experts, with the rapid development of the emerging markets, progress in drug research, rise in generics production, availability of high-potency drugs and innovations in manufacturing processes, the global pharmaceutical landscape is continuously being modified.
To overcome the challenges faced by the industry five major trends have been emerging in the field of pharmaceutical processing and packaging equipment. These include a rising demand for pharmaceutical quality and safety through anti-counterfeiting and inspection technology; the ability to handle potent substances; adapting lines for small batch sizes and research purposes; an increasing use of single-use components; and the need to improve productivity by optimizing manufacturing processes with respect to OEE.
Of late the outsourcing pharma packaging is growing. The forecasted demand for the existing portfolio of products requires a different model to meet the needs of shorter run volumes, more shared capacity and changeover, as well as smaller footprints of equipment. In view of this more flexible equipments are required that can be more change-over-friendly, particularly in the contract packaging business where efficiency of operations are critical.
At present, the focus is to develop extremely high quality standard equipment that not only caters to the needs of the products but also should be easy to use and at the same time continue to demand higher quality in terms of inspection, safety and reliability.
Currently, the pharma and biopharma companies are demanding more advanced equipments that can give a higher level of aseptic assurance and also should meet stringent regulatory requirements. Present trend is to move away from preserved products to aseptically produced non-preserved products. It is also noted that temperature-sensitive products and secondary inspection equipment are areas where customers are seeking more advanced packaging equipment.
With strict quality and safety standards such as the FDA’s PAT guidance, as well as GMP manufacturing guidelines, regulatory compliance is a top priority. In order to comply with these regulations, the industry requires reliable and high-end inspection technology equipment to be integrated in their production lines.