Trends in print packaging for pharmaceuticals

Ian Anderson, sales and marketing director, Field Boxmore, highlights the implications and possibilities of print packaging for the clinical trialist

With year-on-year double-digit profit growth no longer guaranteed, pharmaceutical companies are looking for cost savings throughout their supply chain and for improved speed to market of new drug and therapies. This is set against a background of an evermore demanding and diverse regulatory framework, creating a challenging environment for suppliers of printed components.

Practices such as Vendor Managed Inventory, Ship to Line, Kitting (where one supplier assumes responsibility for the supply of all components for a particular product), previously the preserve of the automotive industry, are now commonplace in pharmaceutical packaging. Likewise, the use of electronic media to manage the interface between supplier and customer, be it communication of order requirements and artwork, and the workflow itself, is now a standard practice.

Demands for small order quantities and shorter lead times are forcing packaging suppliers to reappraise established manufacturing techniques and to investigate new printing technologies such as digital, although this is by no means the only solution and has yet to make significant inroads in pharmaceutical printing. These pressures are no more prevalent than in meeting the needs of CROs during all phases of clinical trials.

printing complexity

Another discernible trend is towards greater variety and complexity of print - for clinical trials there is an imperative to deliver clear and specific information for products or therapies that may well be unfamiliar to the patient. Design capability can relate not only to print and image but also to functionality to provide more novel component solutions to ensure successful information delivery using booklets, leaflet-labels and leaflet-cartons as well as the more conventional cartons, labels, leaflets and wallets. For example, the use of multi-peel labels can provide a simple but user-friendly means to track patient administration.

Full artwork support can be provided, ranging from simple reprographic work from existing designs through to the creation of basic artwork or the development of a complete brand image.

EU standards

In combination, these working methods allow innovative suppliers to provide individually tailored packaging solutions to meet the needs of the clinical trialist - whether their interest is in medical devices, drug delivery systems or actions in terms of pharmacology, immunology or metabolism.

As the pharmaceutical industry consolidates, so it looks for fewer and better suppliers that cater for the ever-increasing demand for packs carrying more protocol information and that can be customised to meet the specific needs of a trial - all this as a standardised package across Europe backed up by common quality and validation systems and standards of service.

As in so many other industries it seems that the days of the small, purely national supplier may be numbered, although the sensitive nature of pharmaceutical trial packaging means that a close relationship between the individual supplier and user site remains as important as ever.

Trying to predict long-term trends in any industry is difficult but one thing seems likely: the major threat to, and opportunity for, tomorrow's packaging suppliers will come as much from shifts in the supply chain as from traditional like-for-like competitors.

challenges ahead

Historically, the role of the print packaging industry has been to convert a pre-set design, with only minor modifications, to a printed carton, label or leaflet supplied to the customer's packing line warehouse.

In future, part of the challenge may be to grasp the opportunity to provide CROs with everything from initial pack design through to packed product supplied to the target patient group in one seamless computer controlled process, most of which might just as easily take place on the customer's premises as in the supplier's stand-alone factory or - and herein lies the threat - be carried out by someone else in the supply chain such as the contract packer or healthcare services supplier.