As the pharmaceutical industry continues to recognize the importance of secondary packaging, the more it is becoming an essential part of the drug production and delivery system. It is carefully considered in the early production stages in all manufacturing practices, with pharmaceutical brands designing their packaging to serve multiple roles.

There is an increasing trend within the pharmaceutical industry to use packaging to address one of the biggest challenges facing the sector: patient adherence. Patient adherence is the extent to which a person’s behavior—taking medication, following a diet, or executing lifestyle changes—corresponds with agreed recommendations from a health care provider. Packaging can influence patient adherence in many ways, from the information it carries to the overall design and ease of use for the consumer. Such information should be conveyed in a way that is clear and easy to understand, and delivery of which can be enhanced by the available space to communicate these details. Packaging can improve adherence from a user perspective by providing additional information and detail—such as product warnings, dosage instructions, legal information and ingredients—ensuring patients have a fuller knowledge of their treatment and thus help to avoid misunderstanding.

Alarmingly this is already a major challenge, as research shows approximately 50% of patients with chronic diseases in developed countries do not take medicines as prescribed. Poor medication adherence increases the likelihood of preventable disease progression, and increases unnecessary hospitalizations, avoidable doctor and emergency department visits. In fact, it is estimated that patient non-adherence costs up to $300 billion a year.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), one of the factors that contributes to poor adherence is a lack of knowledge as patients often misunderstand treatment instructions. This is particularly important now as the current ageing population means that there are more elderly people who are susceptible to disease and may find it hard to access information and hard-to-open packaging. Pharmaceutical packaging therefore plays an incredibly important role, given the information it provides that helps patients abide by the proper dosing schedule.

Over two decades’ worth of research supports the use of modern packaging solutions, including patient prompting—also known as compliance-prompting—as a successful option for improving patient adherence. This leverages the unique characteristics of packaging to help patients better understand how and why to take their medicine. Scientific data clearly shows that packaging can increase patient adherence to taking medicine correctly as prescribed. Never before have packaging and manufacturing engineers been in a better position to help their organization through packaging decisions that drive top-line sales and positive business results, ultimately helping patients reach better health outcomes.

In addition to increasing patient adherence in regards to helping end consumers, the pharmaceutical industry is looking to improve the overall suitability and functionality of its packaging to meet challenges the sector faces. It is estimated that 30% of product recalls in the pharmaceutical industry are due to packaging errors; increasing the quality of packaging will enable the industry to reduce this figure. But more relevant or suitable packaging will also enable the pharmaceutical industry to meet the requirements of the U.S. Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA), which requires Standardized Numeric Identifiers (SNI), packaging lot numbers and expiration numbers to be included on pharmaceutical products for human consumption.

With pharmaceutical packaging requiring more elements, the margin for error may increase, meaning that packaging manufacturers must strengthen their quality and consistency in producing packaging. This will protect pharmaceutical companies in two key ways: firstly, mistakes and recalls can severely harm a brand’s image and consumer trust, and secondly, this is an industry where mistakes can cause life changing issues. Ultimately, end consumers need to take certain medicines in order to improve their lives in some way; incorrect dosage instructions for example could cause long-term harm.

In light of these major trends aimed at increasing patient adherence, global suppliers of pharmaceutical packaging solutions have continued to invest in specialist capabilities in this area. Focusing its efforts on driving innovation and boosting capacity, Essentra recently installed new IT systems and acquired new machines at its facilities across the U.S., such as a Vijuk MV-11 Triple Knife Outsert System in its Greensboro facility and two Bobst Visionfold 110 A1 and A2 machines in its Charlotte facility. These recent investments will help to both meet and anticipate market trends and future needs.

In addition, all of Essentra healthcare packaging sites in the U.S. have been granted PS9000 certification, which provides a framework of cGMP compliance that is specific to manufacturing secondary packaging for the pharmaceutical and medical device industries. This verifies that the quality of systems are consistent across all sites, in terms of documentation, training and manufacturing processes. The certification also guarantees that quality control practices are defined to cover end-to-end—from the receipt of a purchase order to the shipment of the finished goods. This is needed to help safeguard products throughout the entire supply chain, and to help minimize errors and chance of recall.

Overall it is evident that packaging is a significant factor within the pharmaceutical supply chain, and must be carefully considered. Packaging and literature are materials that are already delivered as a part of the offering; therefore amending it to include patient adherence-enhancing or tamper resistant features should not incur too many additional costs. With wider external trends such as the growing ageing population and increasingly strict legislation, packaging manufacturers must prioritize innovation and investment, ensuring that they can keep up with the ever-changing market. 

---

Rupert Taylor is global category manager, healthcare and personal care, at Essentra, a UK-based provider of printed primary and secondary packaging. The company is currently expanding its presence in the U.S., with a focus on pharmaceutical packaging, contract packaging and serialization. Essentra supports the healthcare and pharmaceutical industry through the supply of printed packaging solutions to branded and generic Rx, veterinary, medical device, OTC, clinical trials and contract packaging/manufacturing sectors.