The dynamism of pharma industry and the impact of COVID-19 have brought new trends in the pharma packaging.

 

The trends in the pharma industry are from different aspects and greatly dynamic, especially nowadays. The COVID-19 put inevitably its impact on the pharmaceutical companies and affected the tendencies in the pharma. The pharmaceutical packaging market is growing. Prognostic data shows that in 2019 the size of the market was USD 83.6 billion and in 2024 his size is projected to reach 111.9 billion with a GAGR OF 6.0%. Take a look at the trends in this so dynamically developing industry as the Pharma is.

 

 

Stringent quality certification

 

The process of strict certification of medicines and in particular the establishment of quality control to prevent and anticipate potential risks of poor pharmaceutical packaging continues to be at the forefront in 2021. The companies from the Pharma industry are expected to manufacture under the conditions and practices required by the cGMP (Current Good Manufacturing Practice) regulations. As far as regulations, pharmaceuticals must comply with the standards developed by ISO (International Organization of Standardization), which are related to the adoption of quality management systems by any organization ensuring safety and efficiency of products.

 

 

Track and Trace

 

In regard to the lineage of the medicines and end-user’ssafety, Track and Trace systems have been around and over the time they provide a lot of possibilities for tracking the origin of certain products. There are a variety of Track and Trace alternatives which offer capabilities to identify the fake medicines and ensure security to the pharmaceutical supply chain at any stage. For example, a full visibility of pharmaceutical products from the manufacturing process to their distribution to the end consumer is possible with the SoftGroup® SaTT Track and Trace software. The system ensures secure communication among the business partners and subcontractors (MAHs/ CMOs and 3PLs).

 

 

Counterfeiting protection

 

The situation with counterfeiting protection is strongly related to the implementation of end-to-end traceability. For pharma, Track and Trace is not just mandatory in several regions, it is imperative – to catch the weak points and to prevent the risks of counterfeiting of medicines. Some of the other trends in the pharma are closely related to the protection from counterfeiting and help to fight against her.

 

 

Using nanotechnology to clamp down on counterfeiting

 

Serialization and Track and Trace are the two mostly used types of protection from counterfeiting of medicines. Nowadays, the nanotechnology, more specifically nano barcodes (NBs), act as “a Track and Trace” system. The NBs are encoded with different encoding elements. Their application in the anti-counterfeiting in pharmaceuticals gives capability to track their origin, redistribution and etc..

 

 

Ease of packaging

 

The efficiency in pharma packaging is always important topic, especially when we are in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic. Firstly, nowadays pharma manufacturers are in a real rush to keep up with the pandemic pace and to manage the production of necessary drug amount in a short time. This increasing demand for medicines entails for the producers the need for time reduction in the process of printing labels and packaging medication, and meanwhile to continue to keep up the level of quality. All of these facts lead the pharma industry in a search of good practices and efficient techniques, which can reduce their production time and facilitate the whole packaging process.

 

Good to know: More about the serialization options for the pharma here ; How to Keep the pace of Track and trace here ;

 

 

Bring smart technology into packaging

 

The process of facilitating the packaging is related to the next tendency in pharma industry which is about bringing smart technologies into packaging. The mandatory process of serialization or/ and aggregation, bring in itself the need of implementing innovative technologies. The Track and Trace process and smart technologies are interdependent and all-in-one they provide solution that can mitigate the risks of counterfeiting, ensure the safety and improve the value of pharmaceutical products.

 

Good to know:  How the implementation of track and trace solutions can fit the business specifics >>

 

 

Eco-friendly packaging

 

Implementing green policies in the pharmaceutical industry is a way more difficult than implementing them in some other industries. This is because of the extremely important security of medicines, both in terms of consumer awareness, quality and authenticity of the pharmaceutical supply chain’ product itself. Attention and care for nature are still of great importance for pharmaceutical manufacturers, so one of the solutions that would reduce their emissions is the use of PLA packaging (Polylactic Acid). PLA is a biodegradable polymer with special properties made from renewable resources.

 

 

 

Sources: https://www.luminer.com/articles/pharmaceutical-labeling-packaging-trends/
https://packaging360.in/insights/6-trends-on-pharmaceutical-packaging-for-2021/
https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/pharmaceutical-packaging-market-890.html