Contract Pharma: Pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical products are becoming ever more complex to develop and manufacture with the rise in more individualized medications and the emergence of more targeted therapies. Is this complexity something you see replicated across the packaging industry?

Lukas Spanier: Yes, packaging needs are becoming more complex, due largely to the fact that order volumes are decreasing, as drug products become more tailored to the unique needs of local markets, as well as individual patients. This trend towards both local market tailoring and personalization has moved from development to commercial manufacturing in recent years.

To meet these changing needs, agility is required to deliver optimum productivity and cost efficiency. Contract development and manufacturing organizations (CDMOs), such as Recipharm, have invested in their packaging capability to deliver this agility for customers. They are also providing expert guidance to support pharmaceutical companies to find ways to streamline packaging needs. For example, at Recipharm, we are working with customers to combine SKUs intended for different markets. Instead of producing the same product in different packaging printed in different languages, we are supporting them to use one set of packaging with labelling and instruction leaflets printed in several languages. This means we can deliver a single SKU for multiple markets, streamlining the number of changeovers while adhering to regulations. 

In addition, we are also seeing growing demand for late-stage customization of packaged products. Increasingly, customers want to delay final decisions on customizing SKUs for individual markets to immediately before delivery. Recipharm is building its own flexible equipment to deliver this late-stage customization as quickly and efficiently as possible, minimizing lead times for customers.

CP: What are the key developments and trends you’ve seen recently across the packaging landscape?

LS: Serialization moving to aggregation is probably the most significant trend affecting the packaging industry. CDMOs are beginning to see more queries from customers about enhanced and effective aggregation processes as the industry moves towards full track and trace as required by global regulatory bodies. Partners like Recipharm that invested in aggregation technology very early on, when the industry was only required to consider serialisation, are well placed to support the industry in ensuring they are compliant with traceability legislation.

In addition, as the economy in general takes steps to decarbonise and minimize waste, more and more pharma companies are enquiring about more sustainable packaging options. CDMOs are working closely with suppliers to meet this sustainability goal, while also ensuring the packaging covers the same stability and performance for the product within.

Finally, kitting within secondary packaging is still very much a major trend, particularly in the biopharma space. Recipharm is receiving regular inquiries for manual kitting projects for small-batch niche therapies, and it is working closely with customers to optimize efficiency and productivity for these projects.

CP: What are currently the main challenges for companies when packaging their products?

LS: As discussed in the first question, the need to deliver tailored drug products—personalized for patients and customized for the regulatory, cultural and language needs of individual markets—is a major challenge for pharma companies when packaging their products. It adds considerable complexity and cost to the packaging process, particularly for companies looking to package their products in-house. They often don’t have the capacity or capability to deliver finished, packaged batches in full quickly and accurately, nor do they have the flexibility to perform changeovers efficiently for the growing number of small-batch drug products.

This is a key reason why we are seeing more and more companies turn to expert support from CDMOs and other contract partners. They have the expertise and dedicated infrastructure to package products accurately, compliantly and efficiently, and to changeover to different SKUs as quickly as possible with minimal downtime. This expert support streamlines costs and helps free up pharma companies’ production capacity for other projects.

CP: What do you expect to see change over the next five years?

LS: Following the pandemic-linked breakdown of a number of global supply chains over the past 12 to 18 months, we can expect to see greater onshoring of activity and supplies by pharmaceutical companies, as well as a diversification of supply sources from multiple global regions. We will see pharma companies prioritizing the reliability and security of supplies of materials, such as active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and packaging, over cost. This approach – relying less on a single region for materials – will help minimize the risk of future disruption and maintain continuity of pharmaceutical product supply.