What are “3 Key Trends” shaping the CDMO industry in 2024 and beyond? Tjoapack’s president of U.S. operations, Peter Belden, shares his thoughts with Contract Pharma.

Demand for the pre-filled syringe (PFS) in the biologics space will rise
The global biologics market is expected to grow from $348.03 billion in 2022 to $620.3¹ billion in 2032, at a CAGR of 6%.¹ Due to their sensitive nature, most biologics are still delivered via injection to avoid the gastrointestinal tract. This poses challenges for the biopharmaceutical industry, which is facing increasing demand to create drugs that are easy and convenient for patients to self-administer.

The pharmaceutical industry has invested in research to address this issue for injectable therapeutics. One outcome of this has been the PFS—a syringe that comes already charged with a single dose of the drug product, helping to prevent under- or over-dosing, ensuring both patient safety and convenience.

Drug developers are increasingly harnessing PFS in the delivery of a wide variety of biologics—and we can expect this trend to continue in 2024. In particular, research on the global PFS drug molecules market indicates that among drug classes, vaccines will lead the market with a projected rev­enue of over $23 billion by the end of 2027 while insulin will have a higher growth rate.²

PFS secondary packaging will play an increasingly important role in supporting patient convenience
Secondary packaging will be integral in supporting PFS to offer enhanced useability and convenience for patients self-administering biologic therapies in 2024.

The right secondary packaging can allow the inclusion of replacement needles or swabs and other additional materials. It can include easy-to-read-and-follow usage instructions to better support patients in preparing the PFS and injecting themselves comfortably and safely.

In 2024, there will be further developments in kit packaging—and the production line technology to support kitting—to make self-administration with PFS even easier. For instance, the growing inclusion of more ergonomic PFS grips within a kit will provide more options for patients to help them find the right grip to administer their treatments effectively and with minimal discomfort.

Labelling advances will enhance patient safety
Smart labels, combined with other secondary packaging innovations, will become more important in 2024 to tackle some patient safety concerns.  

1. Smart labels enhancing stability protection: Smart labels containing radio-frequency identification (RFID) or near-field communication (NFC) can minimize the risk of temperature anomalies that can affect the stability and shelf life of sensitive biologics. These technologies can help monitor the conditions and temperatures each product unit experiences in real time as it is transported through the supply chain. They can then send the data to nearby receivers to be fed to a central database.

2. Smart packaging protecting against tampering: As they can carry more information than traditional alternatives, smart labels can support compliance with increasingly stringent serialization legislation, such as the U.S. Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA).³ They are also easier to scan during transport as they don’t need to be near the reader.

Tampering is another risk to patient safety—many markets require the use of anti-tampering solutions on secondary packaging, such as foil stickers across closures. Ongoing innovation in solutions for PFS secondary packaging can eliminate tampering that might not be immediately visible while making the solutions more efficient to install throughout filling and packaging.

1. https://www.precedenceresearch.com/biologics-market
2. https://drug-dev.com/special-feature-pfs-parenteral-manufacturing-how-covid-19-changed-the-market/
3. https://www.fda.gov/drugs/drug-supply-chain-integrity/drug-supply-chain-security-act-dscsa