Sustainability & Pharmaceutical Packaging: Unique Challenges And Opportunities In A Growing Industry

Radical growth within the pharmaceutical industry has highlighted the need for sustainable packaging solutions. Can new technologies and growing demand overcome decades of delays throughout the sector?

Stringent regulations and the absence of consumer pressure have long been scapegoats for the lack of sustainable pharmaceutical packaging. New production techniques have led to a proliferation of eco-friendly materials and practices, yet numerous challenges remain.

We examine how growing demand and evolving technology have encouraged the adoption of greener packaging options throughout the industry, and we take a hard look at the remaining obstacles.

The Roots of Pharma’s Eco-Friendly Failings

Few people are aware of the massive carbon footprint left by pharmaceutical companies, with emissions 55% higher than the auto industry. And even fewer recognise the unique reasons why sustainability has proved such a unique challenge for this sector.  

Regulations & Restrictions

Pharmaceutical packaging is subject to some of the strictest regulations and safety protocols in manufacturing today. Medicines need impenetrable barrier protection that fulfils a number of varying criteria. Consider this condensed list of guidelines outlined by the WHO:

Tablets - Protect from light, moisture, crushing, and mechanical shock.

Capsules - Protect from light, excessive moisture or dryness, do not expose to temperatures above 30°C.

Topical/semi-solids - Protect from light, moisture, damage from handling, kept at temperatures typically not exceeding 25°C.

Biological medicines such as vaccines, allergenics, and gene therapies complicate packaging further by requiring cryogenic storage for most if not all of their transport.

Not only must pharmaceutical packaging safeguard product integrity, it also needs to ensure user-appropriate accessibility. This means external boxing as well as bottles, blister packs and tubes can be easily opened by elderly consumers while remaining child-resistant. 

The long list of criteria translates into few options for packaging materials. Consequently, the pharmaceutical industry relies heavily on single-use plastics which fulfil the requirements these products demand at a relatively low cost, making sustainable packaging a far reach.

Lack Of Demand For Sustainability

It’s true: sustainability has never been as big of a purchasing driver as it is today. Not only do 31% of shoppers consider an item’s sustainability as a deciding factor in whether or not they’ll buy, 80% of young consumers claim they’d be willing to spend more for sustainable products.  

However, unlike other sectors, the purchase of most pharmaceutical products requires little input from consumers. Prescription medications are not bought off the shelf and with the exception of OTC drugs, patients have few if any product choices, whether covering their own costs or receiving state-funded coverage.

Instead, government health departments and/or private health insurance providers are largely responsible for deciding which labels and products they ultimately make available to their customers or constituents. 

With fiscal budgets and corporate profit margins on the line, plus a lack of consumer involvement, it’s no wonder why pharmaceutical companies have felt far less pressure to find sustainable solutions when compared to other industries.

How A Changing Market & Technological Innovation Are Making Sustainable Pharmaceutical Packaging A Viable Option 

Spurred by rapid growth during the Covid-19 pandemic, sustainable policies and solutions are finally having an impact on packaging throughout the pharmaceutical industry. 

Vaccine creation and deployment led to the sudden need for specific materials such as glass vials, and syringes, along with packaging that could effectively protect it during transport. 

Climbing profits and increased waste output brought on a first for the industry: greater scrutiny and raised expectations. Motivated to find sustainable solutions, companies began putting solid resources behind efforts to create and utilise eco-friendly materials and practices.

Growing Pressure, Demand & Benefits For Change

While the initiative for reform within the industry ultimately developed from the top down, there’s no doubt it has been driven by growing global awareness and environmental issues.

Consider the findings of a recent survey of C-level executives in 2023:

• Board members/management, Regulators/government, and consumers/clients are where companies feel the most pressure to act on climate change (68%).

• The biggest perceived benefit to undertaking eco-friendly measures is brand recognition & reputation (52%) followed by customer satisfaction (44%).

• The value of adopting sustainable practices nearly overrides the cost of doing so, with 45% of executives citing the impact of ‘changing consumption habits/preferences’ only second to ‘resource scarcity/cost of resources’ (46%). 

This is just one of many examples today of how industries once thought impervious to external pressures are now adjusting for sustainability to appease stakeholders and consumers alike. 

And as brand recognition and reputation are considered a top benefit of implementing greener practices, pharmaceutical packaging has become a main focal point of the industry’s move towards sustainability.

Recent Innovation In Materials & Production

The use of eco-friendly materials and production are the #1 indicators of sustainability across all industries, and packaging is how most buyers judge whether or not a product or company is truly environmentally responsible.

With growing incentives to adopt greener methods of production, pharmaceutical companies are investing in ways to conform eco-friendly materials to the industry’s demanding criteria.

Efforts have focused primarily on waste reduction/recyclability, and rightfully so: data from the World Health Organization reveal that 50% of the industry’s 300+ tonnes of waste consists of single-use plastic.

To counter this, companies are ramping up the use of common packaging options such as aluminium. A longtime staple of pharmaceutical products, this lightweight, recyclable material provides excellent barrier protection and resistance to moisture and extreme temperatures. 

Removing harmful, non-recyclable substances from current packaging compounds has not only created fully renewable and recyclable single-component materials, it has also proved a cost-effective alternative for companies.

One such example is PET-based Alu-Alu packaging by UFlex. The recently patented primary packing material did away with PVC and nylon in its laminate, resulting in simpler and cheaper production. 

Some companies have taken innovation a step farther by introducing renewable materials never before utilised for the industry. When Tokyo-based Astellas Pharma sought ways to make its blister packaging more sustainable, they turned to sugar cane derived polyethylene. The result was biodegradable packaging which could be produced using a fraction of the carbon footprint of its conventional petroleum-based counterpart.

The adoption of sustainable packaging materials has industry leaders hopeful, but it's only half of the solution. Real impact will require packaging suppliers to (literally) head back to the drawing board, as pharmaceutical companies continue to grapple with excess waste and a lack of efficient transport systems.

Increasingly sophisticated technologies such as 3D printing allow designers to create realistic samples without risking errors which lead to wasted printing runs and materials. 

In an industry overseen by strict regulations, product serialisation has proved invaluable in quality monitoring, product recalls, and counterfeit detection. However, pharmaceutical companies are now using these systems to optimise supply chains by avoiding production surpluses and excessive transport emissions. 

Sustainable Pharmaceutical Packaging: Where It’s At & The Road Ahead

Currently, roughly 10-25% of all primary pharmaceutical packaging is sustainable. With a projected growth rate of 15.4% from 2022 - 2027, and steadily increasing consumer demand, and advances in technology, continued growth is inevitable. 

However, there is still much that needs to be done to bring the sector up to speed. In order to reach targets set forth in the Paris Agreement, the pharmaceutical industry will need to reduce its emissions levels observed in 2015 by a staggering 59% by 2025.

The real challenge lies in the next health crisis or market fluctuation, because—as the past few years can attest—the pharmaceutical sector can be turned on its head in an instant. 

Will industry leaders and packaging providers be able to adapt current eco-friendly solutions to future disruptions? Only time will tell.