Expansion in Packaging Making Bloom to Pharmaceutical Packaging

Packaging plays a key role in maintaining the life-saving nature of pharmaceutical products and medical devices effectively. To protect medical devices from external factors, an effective and safe packaging technique should be implemented. The leading organizations of pharmaceutical and medical devices are, therefore, developing robust packaging methods and techniques to maintain the product quality and ensure long-term durability. 

An effective market entry study is available to efficiently maintain product quality and penetrate different niche market segments. Market entry studies help drug packaging and pharmaceutical companies to enter new markets and position their products effectively. The pharmaceutical packaging industry has been under frequent pressure from regulatory authorities over the years to provide safe and reliable health services.  Now packaging has slowly become an inevitable part of the pharmaceutical and medical devices industry owing to the increase in government regulations.

The packaging material consists of the primary packaging system, the secondary packaging system, and the tertiary packaging system. The primary packaging system consists of the packaging material directly related to the product. Bottles, caps, labels, and cap liners are included. Ampules, tubes, blisters, vials for pens, inhalers, and syringes are some of the main dosings and filling packaging. The secondary system of packaging includes cartoons, shippers, and pallets.

Packaging is designed to contain a product that cannot interact with the environment. Pharmaceutical packaging is an arrangement of components for the preservation, protection, and supply of different types of drugs. Traditional pharmaceutical packaging materials have been industrialized to provide profound goods with a high level of protection. However, new packaging challenges have risen with technological advances, which are elucidated by the use of a new generation of materials. Pharmaceutical packaging provides containment, drug security, identity, handling convenience, and efficient delivery. 

In the growth of the global pharmaceutical packaging market, advanced manufacturing processes such as green packaging technologies, the use of environmental--friendly materials to develop pharmaceutical packaging, which causes minimal damage to the environment, plays an important role. The transformation of the formulation into an attractive and marketable product is an important factor in pharmaceutical packaging.

In conjunction with the growing pharmaceutical industry, all these factors will continue to motivate people to buy packaging products. However, the availability and price volatility of raw materials and changing health regulations to meet the growing demand of the pharmaceutical industry acts as a major market constraint. 

Constant innovation such as blow-fill-seal (BFS) vials, anti-counterfeit measures, plasma impulse chemical vapor deposition (PICVD) coating technology, two-in-one prefilled vials, prefilled syringes, and child-resistant packs all have a direct impact on the packaging. This is key to ensure patient safety in the world of pharmaceutical packaging. In addition, the combination of an increase in the number of generic OTC products and an increasingly competitive market has made it an important marketing tool. For emerging countries, the issues of the environmental security is also a key concern. Pharmaceuticals need reliable and fast packaging solutions to meet quality, comfort, and security requirements.

The market for pharmaceutical products and medical devices is likely to grow, according to PMMI, the Association for Packaging and Processing Technologies. The future of the global market for pharmaceutical packaging looks good, driven by the growth of the pharmaceutical industry and the improvement of health care in emerging economies. In the growth of the global pharmaceutical packaging market, advanced manufacturing processes used to develop pharmaceutical packaging plays a key role. 

Advanced production processes include green packaging technologies, use of environmentally sustainable materials to develop pharmaceutical drug packages that cause minimal environmental damage. These biodegradable and environmental-friendly packaging materials are designed to replace the existing conventional packaging materials. Eco-friendly packaging raw materials include paper, cardboard, and corn starch. The use of biodegradable materials supports the sustainability of all phases of the life cycle of pharmaceutical products, thus increasing the demand for sustainable packaging by pharmaceutical manufacturers. 

The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) also plays a role in the packaging and labeling of pharmaceutical products. Commercial products need serialization in accordance with the recent regulatory requirements. Serialization creates a unique code for each sales unit, allows the user to track the product back to its source from the pharmacy shelf, and is implemented as a counterfeit deterrent. It is important for a packaging team of contract development and manufacturing organizations (CDMO) to understand the needs of each product and to develop packaging adapted to the specific needs of each customer. 

In the production of pharmaceutical packaging, several raw materials, such as glass, plastic resins, paper and paperboard, and aluminum, are used in the form of bottles, containers, blister packs, caps, closures, syringes, and tubes. Due to the increasing trends in home care and self-administration, drug delivery devices are gaining popularity. The increasing demand for innovative products such as parenteral containers and pre-fillable inhalers is expected to boost the market. The fastest economic growth in the pharmaceutical packaging market is supposed to come from prefillable syringes and parenteral vials, which will continue to grow as biotechnology advances lead to the introduction of new injection therapies. The growing demand for biologics in the global pharmaceutical packaging market will increase the demand for innovative product packaging solutions. 

The pharmaceutical packaging industry must help balance large and complex considerations such as the development of good designs and customer communication. Manufacturers should also address pressing issues such as counterfeiting, compliance with patients, drug integrity, and balancing child resistance as well as elderly accessibility. These concerns have led to an increase in pharmaceutical packaging costs. It is also expected that the costs of developing new products will increase the packaging price of these pharmaceutical products. 

The U.S. market is expected to maintain moderate growth due to the increase in aging population, robust innovations, and increased demand for sophisticated packaging from consumers. Due to the presence of health-conscious people and their high expenditure power, the U.S. market is driving the growth of the pharmaceutical packaging market. Some of the other driving factors responsible for the growth of the pharmaceutical packaging market in the U.S. are technological innovation in packaging and integration, and advanced manufacturing processes. The growth in the pharmaceutical packaging market is expected to be the highest in emerging economies such as Brazil, Russia, India, and China, supported by increased income and increased awareness of the benefits of good health systems and healthier lifestyles. 

With the saturation of the developed markets (the U.S., the U.K., Germany, France, and Italy), pharmaceutical companies are largely aligning their growth strategies with rapidly expanding emerging markets, in particular, the BRIC countries. Furthermore, the regulation implemented for packaging by authorized agencies such as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the National Quality Forum (NQF), and the Healthcare Compliance Packaging Council (HCPC) is also driving the growth of the market for pharmaceutical packaging. 

A few of the recent market trends in the pharmaceutical packaging market include the development of packaging technology and the introduction of new medicinal products. Due to special blister packs and cardboard packaging, eco-friendly packaging, as well as child-resistant packaging, is also gaining popularity. 

The development in the global market for pharmaceutical packaging is driven by the increase in personal income and public awareness of the benefits of a healthy lifestyle. In addition, the market is gaining momentum with eco-friendly packaging solutions.