How Innovations In Robotics And 3D Printing Create Opportunities For Pharma Packaging
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There’s plenty of buzz in the pharmaceutical industry press about the potential of 3D printing and robotics to revolutionise how pharma products are manufactured and distributed. What gets less attention is how these innovations will affect pharma packaging.
3D printing and robotics are seen as ways to enable small-batch and personalised drug manufacturing. Potentially, 3D printing could also open the way to distributed production so that drugs are produced in smaller batches closer to where they are needed.
Imagine a local clinic or pharmacy using a 3D printer to manufacture medications in precise dosages, on-demand. This certainly has the potential to simplify many issues such as distribution, logistics and storage.
3D printing could open the way to personalised dosages, unique drug combinations, different geometries and release characteristics. Conventional manufacturing like tablets and encapsulation doesn’t allow this degree of variation.
In drug manufacturing, a computerised model builds a 3D shape layer by layer. Typically a liquid binder is deposited onto successive layers of a pharmaceutical powder bed until the final shape of the tablet is established.
The first 3D printed drug was licensed in 2015. Since then it has been slow to take off for a number of reasons: limitations of the excipients, limited development of printing software and instrumentation, and the risk-averse regulatory landscape.
Robotics and 3D Printing for Pharma Packaging
Despite the slow take-up, pharmaceutical companies see an exciting future for 3D printing and robotics. The pharma giants are investing heavily. This is partly driven by the fact that they see personalisation and small-batch manufacturing as the future for many medications.
Small batch and personalised medications will call for equally granular solutions for pharma packaging. This could affect both primary packaging (for example, personalised 3D printing of bottles and vials) and secondary packaging that could carry personalised administration guidance.
For safety and compliance it would make sense to integrate the drug and packaging manufacturing processes in this small-batch world.
But in the world of pharma packaging, robotics offers many more advantages that go beyond small-batch market innovations. Packaging must provide proper protection and reduce the risk of drugs becoming contaminated. This calls for a highly controlled environment better suited to robots than humans.
Robots excel at controlled and repetitive tasks. Also, unlike humans, they never need to leave the production environment and they don’t breathe, which are typical contamination risks. They also work 24/7, 365 days a year without getting tired.
Highly automated pharma packing manufacturing offers the ability to adapt quickly to regulatory requirements and accelerate the time to market for new products.
Product Labelling
Labelling provides vital information such as composition, administrating and expiry dates. It also provides tracking data such as a batch number. Packaging also plays a vital role in labelling and branding.
Automation brings the possibility of almost limitless variety in packaging possibilities - in the primary, secondary and tertiary markets. Tertiary packaging isn’t always seen by consumers but helps protect products during transportation and storage.
Packaging robots are normally designed to open, fill, transport, palletise, seal, code and label product packaging. Robots need less space than production environments that rely on people. Programming robots to perform repetitive tasks is cheaper and more reliable than training and supervision. And in highly regulated markets this repeatability of process is invaluable.
Machine-Centric Robotics
One of the most significant developments is in the area of machine-centric robotics. Essentially, this means having an integrated control system for robots and a variety of machines that perform specific tasks.
Machines perform one specific task such as filling, bottling, gluing, printing or stamping. Robots can perform more versatile tasks that connect a continuous process involving multiple machines. Articulated arms in machine-centric robotics manipulate products while the machines continue to process them.
Recent innovations in advanced robotics technology allows a single programmable controller to manage both the robot arms and the various machines to maximise throughput dynamically. This creates opportunities for pharma packaging to become highly responsive and efficient and avoids lines stopping because one part of the process becomes overloaded.
This is another example of how pharma packaging is becoming more specialised. It’s an area where pharma companies will be looking for expert and innovative partners.