Geert Vleugels, general manager at Tjoapack discusses the revolution in packaging.
Tjoapack
In an industry where precision and safety truly matter, innovation is an essential but challenging endeavour, particularly when it comes to packaging finished pharmaceutical products. A key obstacle facing the pharmaceutical sector is the increasing complexity of product portfolios, which now include sophisticated biopharmaceuticals, personalised medicines and new delivery systems, such as autoinjectors and pre-filled syringes (PFS). This complexity introduces new hurdles for medicine secondary packaging. Another significant challenge for the packaging of drug products is the stricter regulatory environment. Global bodies are demanding enhanced traceability and anti-counterfeiting measures, such as serialisation and aggregation, to ensure patient safety and supply chain integrity. These issues require pharmaceutical companies to be more agile, efficient and innovative than ever before. Successfully navigating this landscape requires a strategic approach to a company’s secondary packaging supply chain.
Failing to address the above issues can have severe consequences for companies. In an environment where time and costs are critical, inefficient packaging processes can lead to significant cost overruns, production delays and a loss of market competitiveness. Additionally, a lack of compliance with evolving regulations can result in costly fines, product recalls and severe reputational damage. In a highly competitive market, these setbacks can be difficult to recover from. Without a proactive approach to innovation and adaptation, a company’s supply chain can become a liability rather than a strategic asset. Ultimately, this can affect a company’s ability to reliably deliver life-saving medicines to patients in need.
The value of an expert strategic partner
To overcome these obstacles, many pharmaceutical companies are turning to strategic partners: contract packaging organisations (CPOs). An expert CPO can transform the supply chain from a reactive into a proactive value-adding component of a company’s business model. CPOs are dedicated to packaging, meaning they often have cutting-edge equipment and in-depth knowledge of the latest industry trends and regulatory requirements. This allows pharmaceutical companies to focus on their core competencies, such as research, development and marketing.
Beyond technology, a strategic partnership with a CPO offers scalability and flexibility. Companies can quickly ramp production up or down to meet fluctuating market demands, new product launches or unexpected surges. This agility helps improve responsiveness, ensuring that products get to market faster. A CPO serves as an extension of a company’s team, providing a secure and reliable link in the supply chain. This collaborative model ensures a safer, more reliable and more agile supply chain for both the client and, most importantly, the patient.
How Tjoapack provides solutions
Tjoapack, a global CPO, exemplifies how a strategic partner can help pharmaceutical companies address today’s challenges. The company’s approach is defined by its ability to offer agility, scalability and innovation while maintaining a steadfast commitment to patient safety and regulatory compliance.
As an answer to regulators’ demand for traceability, Tjoapack’s innovation pipeline includes a suite of anti-counterfeit measures, such as black-light verification to ensure global compliance and supply chain transparency in highly regulated markets. The company offers advanced serialisation services that ensure global compliance and supply chain transparency in highly regulated markets.
Tjoapack’s solutions address the hurdles posed by sophisticated biopharmaceuticals, personalised medicines and new delivery systems like autoinjectors. Biopharmaceuticals often require a strictly controlled environment to maintain their efficacy. Tjoapack provides specialised capabilities for temperature- and oxygen-sensitive products, including cold-chain storage and packaging solutions such as dry ice and nitrogen-purged packaging. This ensures the integrity of these delicate medicines is protected throughout the packaging process. Also, Tjoapack’s capabilities are not limited to a single product type. The company can handle a wide array of dosage forms, including vials, ampoules and pouches, providing a flexible solution for a diverse and complex product portfolio.
A key strategic supply chain solution is the focus on postponement packaging, where the final packaging and product customisation is delayed until the latest possible moment, even when a specific order is received. This approach helps to reduce waste by minimising inventory that is no longer in demand and improve responsiveness by allowing a generic product to be tailored to meet diverse market and regulatory requirements, critical for partners with fluctuating needs. Tjoapack has also developed a collaborative dashboard for streamlined order management and is implementing a next-generation ERP system to enhance internal coordination and customer-facing collaboration. This results in faster decision-making and improved supply chain performance for clients. As a strategic partner, Tjoapack goes beyond simple service provision. The company’s in-house technology platform designs and verifies the technical feasibility of packaging solutions.
The path forward
Innovation in pharmaceutical packaging is a continuous process deeply embedded in a company’s culture and strategy. Strategic CPOs move beyond simply providing the service and become collaborators actively shaping the future of the supply chain.
A strategic partner stays ahead of key industry trends by investing in research, participating in industry events and working with thought leaders. This commitment is central to its brand, built on reliability and customer centricity. An innovative CPO ensures that a company can navigate market complexities and deliver life-saving products safely and efficiently, turning ideas into market-ready solutions that benefit the business and the patients.