The over US$ 350 million Essel Propack views South Asia and Africa as markets having immense prospects for laminated tube packaging for pharma and cosmetics. The company is developing anti-counterfeit and tamper evident packs to identify spurious products especially in the South Asian and African markets.

While it has signed up with a few customers in Africa for pharma supplies to their local markets, in India, it has made in-roads into the over-the-counter (OTC) and prescription products sectors.

The company is the largest specialty packaging global company, manufacturing laminated plastic tubes for pharma. It operates through 24 advanced facilities in 11 countries, marketing over six billion tubes. It has a 33 per cent of business share in terms of volume coming in from the oral care market

The company has production units at USA, Mexico, Colombia, Poland, Germany, Egypt, Russia, China, Philippines, Indonesia and India. These facilities cater to diverse pharma brands that include cosmetics, personal care and oral care.

In South Asia and Africa, the company has eight units in India and one in Egypt. Indian units are at Wada, Vasind, Murbad, Goa, Silvassa, Baddi, Chakkan and Sanand. India caters to the requirements of SAARC countries. Customers in the Middle East and Africa are serviced out of Egypt and partly from India.

The AMESA region comprising Africa, Middle East and South Asia is the market for the future. Since most of AMESA is covered under emerging markets, this geography is growing rapidly with changing life styles and aspirations of young population creating a demand for packaging innovations in cosmetics and pharmaceuticals including oral care and health foods. New product launches by companies in the segment are increasing, Ashok Goel, Vice-Chairman & Managing Director of Essel Propack Ltd, told Pharmabiz.

Realizing the potential of the non-oral care business, we have made concerted efforts to understand the needs of pharmaceutical packaging. The absence of significant upgradation in packaging technology for a few years also gave us an edge, he added.

Specifically for pharma, Essel has developed special laminates structures with some variants and barrier properties to ensure that the active ingredients of creams and gels remain intact for its entire shelf life.

It has developed formulations for laminated structures that help resist reaction with the inner layers, prevent oxygen, UV rays and moisture penetration Its tubes for pharma applications are also sterilized.

For South Asia and Africa, Essel Propack has developed dispensing systems that enable ease-of-use and minimum wastage. For instance, in ophthalmic applications like eye ointments, it has developed a long-nozzle closure, to facilitate direct dispensing into the eyes. For pain balms, there is a closure with an applicator-cum-massager. For single use applications, it has devised a twist off/pinch off cap and dispenser to ensure prescribed volume of the product is doled out at a time.

The emphasis at every stage has been to ensure regulatory compliances maintain FDA or equivalent stipulations for the quality of material used in every area, said Goel.

It is the only tubing company certified under ‘ISO 1538: 2011’ specification for pharma supply standards. Most of Essel’s units are Sedex compliant meeting global majors’ standards.

The company faces competition from the aluminium tube manufacturers for ointment, creams, pain balms etc. Being a globally integrated company holding patents, it does not face hurdles to garner business.

 AMESA region is seeing a positive trend and a transition to laminated tubes in pharma as it is not just attractively packaged but provides visibility and tamper evident.

 The growth restricting factors in South Asia and Africa is validation of laminate structure as it undergoes stability tests both by Essel and its customers which is time consuming. Further, the raw materials are FDA compliant and expensive. Customers need to invest in specific sealing systems required for laminated tubes which is currently time-consuming. For scheduled drugs, product re-registration for a packaging change is needed and speedy clearances are found wanting, he pointed out.

In India , Essel has been quite successful tapping orders from pharma sector. It has been successful in converting leading prescription drugs to laminated tubes covering ointments, medicated creams and gel formulations. In the OTC space, medicated creams are now converted from bottles, aluminium tubes and jars to laminated tubes. India accounts for 15 per cent of Essel sales.

The big advantage for Essel Propack is the global presence and multinational customers prefer to work with it to facilitate uniform packaging because it enhances speed to market.

For the future, the effort is to ensure pharma customers shift to laminated tubes, because these are eco-friendly, with security features and user friendly. It has a ‘Partner to Win’ and ‘Preferred Supplier’ agreement with some of global pharma majors. The plan is to target $500 million revenues in the near future and generate 50 per cent of sales from non-oral care category. Essel is gearing up to achieve a top line growth of 15 per cent YoY and PAT growth of 20 per cent for next five years, concluded Goel.