As the pharmaceutical sector in India continues to grow steadily, so does the pharmaceutical packaging industry. The pharmaceutical industry in India is now the world’s third largest in terms of volume. Reports from GBI Research suggest that pharmaceutical packaging market was valued at $ 47.8 billion in 2010 globally. World demand for pharmaceutical packaging is expected to rise, eventually leading to a CAGR of 7.3 per cent from 2010 to 2017, to reach a value of $78 billion by 2017. According to another report from PWC in 2010, India joined the league of top 10 global pharmaceutical markets in terms of sales by 2020 with a value expected to reach $50 billion.
Traditionally, the majority of medicines were taken orally in the form of tablets or capsules, which are either packed in blister packs or fed into plastic pharmaceutical bottles. Powders, pastilles and liquids also make up part of the oral medicine intake. However, other methods for taking medicines are now also being more widely used. These include parenteral or intravenous, inhalation and transdermal methods too.
These changes have made a huge impact on the packaging industry and there is an increasing need to provide customised, individual packaging solutions, which guarantee the effectiveness of medicines for the patient.
With these changing trends, pharmaceutical packaging is evolving rapidly. 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. Continuous innovations in the pharmaceuticals themselves will also have a direct impact on the packaging. Earlier, the requirement of pharmaceutical packaging focused only on preserving and securing the quality of enclosed medicine. Now these requirements have been redefined and are extended to preservation of product against tampering and counterfeiting, assurance of product dispensing accuracy, promotion of patient compliance with product dosage schedule as also maintaining and increasing the brand identity, loyalty and promotion of the product.
Pharmaceutical packaging segment has been going through a lot of changes in the past few years to keep itself updated with newer innovative technologies and to provide economical packaging solutions. Packaging is defined as the collection of various components which surround the pharmaceutical product from the time of production until its use. A good pharmaceutical packaging serves various purposes such as providing identity, containment, presentation & information, convenience and protection, thereby helping patients with safe delivery and necessary compliance.
A pharmaceutical packaging is broadly defined in three categories, namely primary packaging, secondary packaging and tertiary packaging. Where primary packaging consist of the material that first wraps around the product and holds it e.g. blister-pack, tube, sachets, etc. , secondary packaging system is outside the primary packaging and is used to group primary packages together e.g. carton, boxes, poly packs etc. and tertiary packaging system is used for bulk handling and shipping e.g. barrel, containers, etc. For each of these packaging systems its design and functionality of the design plays a very important role for the packaging to serve its multiple expected purposes.
The design of pharmaceutical packaging being one of the important elements should be such that the product can be administered in a safe manner to the patient. Pharmaceutical packaging must protect the content and the product against mechanical, climatic, microbiological and human hazards. It may also require being child-resistant and/or tamper-resistant and must be compatible with the contents of the product. This facilitates in increasing the acceptability of the product. However, it must also be ensured that packaging must not only increase acceptability through its design, but also protect the patient and keep the integrity of the product intact. A tamper-evident design is important as it protects against incidental and accidental poisoning too.
Keeping drugs secure from young children while ensuring user-friendliness to seniors is also one of the important objectives of the pharmaceutical packaging company. Child resistant packaging was introduced in late 1960’s and is most commonly known as safety caps on the bottles that has to be pushed down before being opened. There are more innovative introductions of child resistant packaging in the recent years like special blister packs and cardboard packaging which are again set to continue growth in the future as its popularity increases.
In 2012 Pharmapack Paris exhibition; Burgopack Healthcare & Technology won an award for the “Most Innovative Child Resistant Packaging Design”. To open the Burgopak Child Resistant Slider pack the patient has to push two buttons, one on either side of the pack while simultaneously pulling the end tab. The pack opens to reveal the blister, held in a plastic tray on one side and the patient information in an easy to read booklet format on the other. Once the patient has accessed the medication they simply push the end tab back into the pack and it re-engages the child resistant lock. As the pack itself is child resistant, there is no additional requirement for tougher child resistant blister foils, making the pack easier to use for both seniors and those with reduced dexterity.
Innovation in packaging of a pharmaceutical product becomes important not only for it primary functions as stated above, but also for its secondary functions like providing eco-friendliness and sustainability as also provide cost-effectiveness of the packaging.
Eco-friendliness and sustainability is ensured with the use of recyclable packing material, sourcing of renewable material, wastage reduction measures; minimize greenhouse gas generation, reduced water usage and minimal energy consumption. Cost-effectiveness can be achieved by ensuring right design and structure to be produced in collaboration with the technology that also increases flexibility of the packaging equipment, decreases time consumed in production, increase the output and reduces the manpower/labour cost.
While these remain ongoing issues that are managed through innovation in the pharmaceutical packaging, another very important aspect that the pharmaceutical packaging is responsible to address is the counterfeiting of drugs.
Growth of global free trade and inadequate drug regulation has led to the expansion of trade in counterfeit drugs worldwide. A medical product is counterfeit when there is a false representation in relation to its identity or source. This applies to the product, its container, or other packaging or labeling information. Counterfeiting can apply to both branded and generic products and counterfeit products may include products with the correct or wrong ingredients, without active ingredients, with incorrect amounts of active ingredients, or with fake packaging.
Drug counterfeiting is likely to increase in the future as medical and health care requirement continue to increase around the globe. Globalization trends and deregulation continue to open new markets by which demand for pharmaceuticals is likely to increase, and with it the supply of counterfeit drugs are also likely to increase.
The security of the pharmaceutical supply chain can be strengthened by innovative packaging solutions and better business practices. Research findings by Frost & Sullivan suggest that currently Indian pharmaceutical companies produce about 20–22 per cent of the world’s generic drugs (in value terms) and therefore counterfeiting is a subject that has great relevance for the Indian industry.
To counter this, innovative packaging has been at the heart of the industry’s strategy to protect itself. It has employed number of security techniques to combat this issue, with varying success, including micro text, engraving and embossing, customised varnishes, holographic materials, invisible ink printing, tamper-evident stickers, RFID track-and-trace tagging and customised graphics and fonts etc.
A new system has been developed that has uniquely coded packs with 'scratch and reveal' serial numbers that can be checked by the end user, either at the pharmacy store or via the internet, to help ensure the provenance and legitimacy of medicines. The label works like a telephone recharge coupon. The user scratches off the cover and texts what is underneath to a free phone number, to find out if a medicine is real or fake. Quick response (QR) codes are also being tested. These printed squares are an advanced version of the 2D barcodes. Anyone with a camera-enabled phone and web access can scan the code and be taken instantly to the pharmacy company website to authenticate the drug. These are not only important for the industry, but also help boost consumers' confidence in the medicines they are taking.
In the era of globalization, it would be a challenge for the packaging industry, as the years ahead would witness the opening of the global channels, and to match the international standards and quality, it is necessary that packaging industry upgrades more in research to have a holistic approach to packaging that would go beyond functional aspect of packaging. At the same time, for companies involved in pharmaceutical packaging, these are exciting times. The ever-changing pharmaceutical landscape and the range of technologies and approaches are on the verge of innovative rapid growth, provided the needs of the product, its security, cost and patient convenience is taken into consideration to build brand identity.