How contract packaging supports pharmaceutical innovation

Dale Pittock, sales director of Valley Northern, explains how contract packaging can support pharmaceutical innovation.

In 2016, the global contract packaging market was worth $26.54 billion, and is expected to reach $47.28 billion by 2022. This compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 10.1% is expected to be driven largely by growing demand for pharmaceutical contract packaging.

New regulatory changes like serialisation are driving manufacturers to outsource packaging to contractors that have the relevant infrastructure and expertise to ensure compliance.

In addition, innovation in the types of medication being brought to market is facilitating packaging innovation at a rate and scale that requires costly changes to packaging lines.

The threat posed by counterfeit medication has challenged the industry for years, and regulation to protect people from black market medicines has had to advance to remain effective.

This is what drove the European Commission (EC) to start work to amend Directive 2001/83/EC to address these concerns under the Falsified Medicines Directive (FMD) in 2011.

The updated FMD aims to protect patients by reducing the chance of counterfeit drugs entering an established supply chain. It will introduce a system to track and record legitimate medicines as they traverse from manufacturer to patient.

Under the new directive, manufacturers need to add safety features to every pack of medication, including a tamper-proof security seal and a barcode.

While this tightened regulation is great for patient safety, it poses interesting challenges to pharmaceutical manufacturers. Not only is there an additional phase to add to the packaging process, which will necessitate changes to production lines, labour and machinery, there is also a dramatically increased data management burden.

Regulatory compliance alone seems reason enough to be driving growth of contract packaging. However, there are other benefits to manufactures choosing the right contract packer.

Each of these new types of drug has new packaging, labelling, storage and shipping demands. Contract packaging specialists that make sure they are cognisant of the latest drug technology developments will be able to adapt their systems, processes and production lines to easily accommodate the corresponding innovation in packaging.

For example, many of these new medications rely heavily on packaging that separates required doses or equipment for different steps the patient must follow to take them safely. Additionally, this type of medication is heavily reliant on cold-chain storage and distribution.

As well as new drugs, contract packagers must also be aware of any new trends being driven by pharmacies or end users. For example, the industry is currently experiencing a shift away from large count bottles for tablets and capsules.

Businesses in this sector that prove the value on offer to pharmaceutical manufacturers, will free up the sector to invest more funds into drug research and development and drastically reduce the time to market.

Where possible, contract packagers need to keep things simple and hassle free. One easy way to do this is to choose suppliers that work with them in a straightforward way.

It’s a complicated business, but there is no doubt that the pharmaceutical industry is going to become heavily reliant on outsourced packaging. Packaging firms that adapt to stay ahead of changes in the regulatory and technology landscapes will be vital in the advancement of modern medicine by solving challenges that distract drug companies from development of new treatments.