Today’s pharma and biopharma drugs require packaging solutions that promote patient compliance, enhance protection from the elements, as well as innovative packaging that differentiates from the competition. Craig Voellmicke, vice president of business development for Aptar CSP Technologies discuses pharma packaging trends, the challenges, and advances. Headquartered in Auburn, AL with six worldwide locations, Aptar CSP Technologies offers custom product design, development, and manufacturing to cGMP Standards. –KB

Contract Pharma: What are some of the current trends and advances in pharmaceutical packaging?  
 
Craig Voellmicke: Increasing patient compliance continues to be of high importance, of course, and connected devices/packaging technologies are being developed to advance patient adherence. Accomplishing patient compliance is a goal that is typically best suited to blister packaging. However, as more and more drugs continue to require enhanced protection against moisture, oxygen and other gases, a major challenge can be that blisters, while offering unit-dose-level protection, traditionally haven’t had absorptive properties. In
other words, you couldn’t just pop in a desiccant as you could with a bottle or vial.
 
This challenge is the impetus behind Aptar CSP Technologies’ Activ-Blister solutions, which help control the internal atmosphere of individual blister cavities, allowing for improved product performance and enhanced shelf life. Offering moisture, oxygen and combination absorption, the technology can be applied without the use of adhesives and without changes to the existing footprint of a packaging line. Activ-Blister solutions can be incorporated into a wide range of blister packaging formats, including push-through blisters, peel/push

blisters, cold-form foils and high barrier films containing Aclar laminates.

CP: What are the challenges clients seek to overcome?
 
CV: Delivering more value and improved outcomes to patients and healthcare providers. From a packaging standpoint, our customers are often looking for a differentiating “edge” amidst a competitive landscape – something unique that also has a tangible benefit. That factor, I believe, has really helped drive the popularly of our Activ-Polymer solutions. The idea
of “desiccating with the desiccant” is appealing to an increasingly broad set of pharma customers.  In particular, the next generation of transdermal drug delivery technology demands significant moisture management within a package and device that are both highly functional and optimized. 
 
CP: How have pharma needs changed over the years?

Speed to market has always been a focus, but is becoming a higher priority, getting more attention. Again, I can really only speak to Aptar CSP Technologies’ specialty, namely packaging solutions with active scavenging properties. For example, we’re seeing pharma customers with finicky oral solid dose products – meaning particularly sensitive to some combination of moisture, oxygen or other efficacy-threatening gases – come to us to basically eliminate the chance of the medicine failing in the package due to ingress, exposure, etc.
 
If that medicine will be bottled, we might suggest our Activ-Seal closures, which are designed with desiccant technology press-fit into an induction sealed, tamper-evident screw cap. The closure’s orifice-reducing element with moisture and gas scavenging rests inside the bottleneck, and is permanently affixed to the top rim of the bottle via insertion technology
during the induction sealing process. This closure uses commercially available, tamper-evident induction seals which, once removed, enable metered dosing. Once the cap is induction sealed to the rim of the bottle, the desiccant technology becomes part of the bottle and cannot be removed.
 
CP: In what areas are pharma/biopharma companies seeking more advanced packaging solutions?  
 
CV: Pharma companies are seeking novel self-administered treatments (as opposed to those administered by healthcare workers) that not only protect the product through the point of care, but also enable ease of use / proper use. Again, per our niche this could mean putting a prescription in a calendarized blister package whose film is desiccated on a per-dose basis  where before that technology simply wasn’t available. It’s a key combination of product protection and patient adherence, ease of use and “trackability” – meaning a calendarized blister pack can let a patient know that he took yesterday’s pill but hasn’t yet taken today’s pill.
 

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Craig Voellmicke, vice president of business development for Aptar CSP Technologies