The result of good-quality medicine packaging

The future of sustainable, high-quality medicine packaging depends on the development and follow-through of a strict assessment plan at all levels of an organization’s supply chain. This may mean manufacturers rely more on their packaging suppliers to promote sustainability. By using biodegradable resources, like paperboard, and by using those that support sustainability at all stages of the package lifecycle, organizations can satisfy the demands of safety-compliant and sustainable packaging.

Although challenges still exist in the pharma packaging production, innovation will continue to provide solutions for more efficient packaging and a cleaner environment. Research planning and development departments and engineers will all play a key role in the future of medicine packaging. Pharma companies will benefit from the time spent transitioning to a more sustainable model, especially as they see growing consumer satisfaction.While the process is challenging, this shift to sustainability will positively impact the pharma industry, and any others who produce packaging, the consumer, and most importantly, the environment.

The assessment and controls depend on what your drug is—so there is not a catchall solution. “Some drugs can be absorbed, some can be inhaled, some can be ingested, and some therapeutics can be all three. So you have to build in safety systems for all three methods of transportation into the worker’s body.” Rather than develop these safety systems for every drug individually, the guidelines suggest building a banding system that is used for all drugs.

The point of building a banding system is to categorize the risk levels of drug properties. Through a team represented by toxicology, health and safety, engineering, quality, validation, and operations, those categories are delineated into bands based on the control processes (including process, operational, engineering, and procedural controls) that the packager can implement. Examples of controls include containment systems, housekeeping, room ventilation, material transfers, and airflow controls. Then during the individual drug assessment, a drug is assigned to a band based on the comparison of the drug properties vs the band properties.