As pressures on global supply chains increase, pharmaceutical, biotech, and medical device companies are recognizing that supply chain resiliency depends not only on internal strengths, but on the importance of external partnerships that are fully aligned with their goals and expectations. For companies evaluating a Contract Packaging Organization (CPO), it’s no longer enough to assess capacity or capabilities. Today’s pharma companies must rethink contract packaging and find partners that go beyond providing packaging services and instead enhance their manufacturing processes with flexibility, responsiveness, agility, and a deep commitment to quality. The greatest value for manufacturers is working with a CPO that serves as a strategic partner and extension of their team.

Integrating quality and compliance into every phase

Quality and compliance remain the cornerstone of pharmaceutical packaging. For pharma companies, CPOs that are devoted to delivering quality at scale without sacrificing efficiency are beyond valuable. The greatest benefits are when CPOs have a well-established quality system that ensures proper documentation and meeting all regulatory and compliance expectations. However, what differentiates the top-tier providers is how they balance consistent quality with responsiveness. Rather than overcomplicating quality systems to the point of becoming a bottleneck, these CPOs structure their operations to ensure flexibility and agility without compromising quality and regulatory compliance. With a quality-first approach, the risk of delays and deviations are reduced while also supporting fast-decision making and accelerated timelines. It is the intersection of quality and responsiveness that defines the most valuable contract packaging relationships.

With over 35 years of experience, Praxis has developed a quality culture that runs across every level of its organization. From production to executive leadership, quality is built into the mindset of everything they do. Praxis provides flexibility, agility, and responsiveness to meet or exceed customer timelines, without compromising compliance. This is achieved through a comprehensive onboarding process designed to anticipate quality and compliance needs. By building quality into every process, Praxis assures customers that products are safe, consistent, and compliant with regulatory standards. With a commitment to excellence, Praxis is proud to have an exceptional history of successful audits with the FDA*, DEA, EPA, customers, and outside certification bodies (*with zero 483 observations). With a quality-first commitment, Praxis approaches quality as a proactive discipline, enabling audit readiness and operational excellence.

Building a stronger supply chain with operational agility

Unexpected manufacturing delays, seasonal demand spikes, and other surges can be difficult to predict—yet they can significantly disrupt the supply chain, with serious implications for patient access and health outcomes. As the final step before finished goods enter the supply chain, the responsibility to stay on schedule is absolutely crucial. That’s why operational agility and the ability to execute quickly is essential. The most effective contract packagers are equipped to handle short runs, reallocate resources, and adapt to different packaging formats without requiring lengthy changeovers. That level of responsiveness is a strategic advantage when production timelines change, or market demands require a quick response. For Rx and OTC products, it’s not just about being fast—it’s about being reliably fast, every time.

Praxis Packaging has designed its operations around this exact need. Positioned to support short timelines and unexpected volume changes, Praxis uses a blend of automated, manual, and semi-automatic processes, and is uniquely built for rapid changeovers. Regardless of the complexity of packaging format or size, Praxis exceeds client expectations with the infrastructure and expertise to get projects onboarded, packaged, and into distribution quickly. Whether it is to assist launching a new SKU, ongoing primary or secondary packaging, or on-demand support, Praxis is experienced to handle aggressive timelines.

Praxis has also taken deliberate steps to build resilience into our supply chain approach for customers, qualifying multiple suppliers for each material component. This gives Praxis the flexibility to adapt quickly if the need arises. Praxis’s strategic inventory practices ensure that key components are always in reserve, so that changes in forecast or urgency don’t affect the product timeline. This isn’t just about contingency planning; it’s about protecting the integrity of your brand and supply chain. When delays happen upstream, Praxis helps make up the time.

In addition, as the Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA) regulations and compliance standards evolve, the need for a partner that brings serialization expertise and experience has never been greater. Companies are at a significant advantage working with a partner that has a serialization infrastructure that offers seamless integration with supply chain partners. Praxis provides comprehensive serialization support with exception management, repackaging, and rework of serialized products. With the capacity to serialize over 40 million products annually, Praxis’s combination of experience, speed, and agility often enables the turnaround of serialization projects within just a few days.

The value of strategic partner model

Pharmaceutical, biotech, and medical device companies are looking for partners with extensive experience across a wide range of packaging types and formats. A CPO that has experience in both primary and secondary packaging is better positioned to understand the full spectrum of packaging requirements. This expertise supports a more streamlined, end-to-end process, enabling faster speed-to-market and greater agility when timelines or volumes shift unexpectedly. However, capabilities alone are not enough. A strategic partnership is formed when the external packaging partner can act as an extension of the pharma company’s team. A strategic contract packaging relationship isn’t only about primary or secondary packaging, but about aligning with quality, operations, engineering, and client relations to collaboratively solve problems, drive efficiencies, and anticipate challenges before they arise. That level of integration relies on ongoing communication, shared visibility into inventory, scheduling and production status, and a commitment to collaborate from onboarding through production.

Praxis is built to serve the pharmaceutical industry, with capabilities in primary packaging for Rx and OTC solid-dose bottle filling and blistering, primary filling of liquids, creams, and pastes, as well as secondary packaging services like brite-stock labeling, cartoning, stretch carding, clamshells, and blister carding. With a relentless focus on customer service, and to ensure customers are supported across the lifecycle of the project, Praxis’s customer service team provides ongoing communication for inventory, materials, planning, scheduling, and production status. Praxis also provides innovative problem-solving with its in-house engineering team, identifying and validating packaging configurations quickly, supporting line setup, and helping clients balance manufacturability with shelf presence, sustainability, and functional performance. When internal packaging capacity or capabilities are limited, Praxis becomes a natural extension of the pharma company’s operations, offering flexible support for new product launches, ongoing runs, sampling, and kitting.

Contract packaging should be considered a strategic function that assists in supply chain continuity. As a strategic partner, Praxis Packaging provides pharma companies with consistent performance so the client can confidently focus on what they do best. Their ability to respond quickly, integrate seamlessly, and deliver high-quality services has positioned them as a reliable partner to small to large pharmaceutical, biotech, and medical device companies.

To support the increased needs of its customers, Praxis is expanding its pharmaceutical packaging facilities by over 125,000 square feet. With expected readiness in mid-2025, plans include additional tablet bottle filling, solid-dose blistering, secondary packaging lines, and a quality control lab. This expansion strengthens Praxis’s position in the pharmaceutical packaging sector.

Are you rethinking your contract packaging expectations? Reach out to Praxis Packaging to discover how our tailored solutions can deliver value beyond the line.