Pharmaceutical Industry
Keeping pills protected After the food and beverage industry, which has been a primary demand driver for plastic packaging, the pharmaceutical industry contributes to the growth of the packaging sector as well.
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harmaceutical packaging calls for excellent protection against contamination, damage, and assurance of longer shelf-life for products. Given plastics’ high adaptability and costeffectiveness, this segment holds the highest share in pharmaceutical packaging. Blister packs, an end market for pharmaceutical packaging, are widely used for the convenience in dispensing drugs especially those in tablets, capsules and other unit-dose formulations, thus ensuring patient compliance, which is a vital reason why blister packaging technology has been introduced and is increasing in adoption. Coherent Marketing Insights in its market report covering 2017-2025 cited that blister packaging has the key advantages of enabling product safety, however, it is non-biodegradable and non-recyclable, which means that it raises environmental concerns regarding its large scale use. Nevertheless, blister packaging is comparably cost-effective, tamperproof and durable; and has improved shelf life, and lower risk of contamination. A hard material that protects from mechanical damage, blister packaging is versatile and can be designed to suit specific needs, such as child-proof seals, individual pouches and calendar packs. Fabricating via cold forming and thermoforming Blister packs contain cavities or bubble-like pockets made from a formable film, usually a thermoformed plastic or cold formed aluminium film. Both segments have advantages and a few disadvantages. Thermoformed packaging is versatile, lightweight and visually attractive, while cold formed packaging has more tensile strength and stiffness. Further, cold formed blister packaging offers longer shelf life of products and optimal barrier protection against light, moisture, oxygen and other gasses, and delamination, which, according to a report by Transparency Markets Research (TMR), factor largely in the market’s growth. It adds too that cold form’s slower speed of production and owing to the larger size of blister packs, when compared to thermoforming, as well as the lower transparency of the packaging may slowdown the adoption rate of the cold form blister packaging products in the near future. Nonetheless, emerging technologies are creating positive shifts in this segment, and thereby increasing utilisation rate. Thus, the cold form blisters market is expected to reach US$8.63 billion by 2024, driven by growing disposable income, improved medical facilities and governmentinitiated healthcare programmes, according to a 2016 report by Grand View Research.
Latest solutions with improvements Germany-based Klöckner Pentaplast will introduce LiquiGuard, the latest inventive addition to the Pentapharm line of pharmaceutical blister films, at the upcoming ASEAN Pharma Packaging Conference 2017 in November. With this solution, hot and cold-fill liquids and semi-solids can be formed and packaged directly in a crystal-clear, thermostable laminate film that protects sensitive products from package leaching and moisture gain or loss, says the firm. It also provides an advanced option for unit dose packaging of liquid or semisolid medications that require resistance to extreme temperatures from hot (120°C filling) to cold (-183°C and lyophilised) during processing. Rollprint Packaging Products’s Autobahn Tear-Open Flow Wrap film is promoted as an extremely fast sealing, easier opening version of aluminium foil flow-wrap films already in the marketplace. Rollprint achieved this using a proprietary process that "harmonises the barrier and sealant layers" for maximum performance. The material is said to permit line speeds approaching 400 packages/minute while maintaining seal integrity and easy opening. Rollprint’s objective for this product in 2018 is to partner with Autobahn material is a customers wanting to push the speed barriers in flow wrapping new generation of flow wrap to the maximum. This technology is designed for a variety of packaging purported to be an commercial applications including packaging blow-fill-seal vials, ultra-fast sealing version with the diagnostics devices, IV overwrap and surgical devices. added benefit of being easier to open
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NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2017