The complete package

It was a generational divide many saw as a lucrative opportunity for brands to adapt and meet the demands of a new, more environmentally conscious generation. Sustainability within the pharma industry has been coming under public scrutiny for some time. Big pharma’s contribution to climate change has been subject to criticism, especially since the industry produces more greenhouse gases than the automotive industry.

Customers, patients and consumers are demanding that pharmaceutical companies take sustainable action and investors prefer “green” investments with governments throwing stricter regulations of their own into the mix. None of this is surprising given that the US generates an estimated 51 million metric tons of plastic waste a year, and is the second biggest polluter in the world, after China. Of all plastic waste, approximately 40 per cent comes from packaging, while less than one per cent of traditional flexible plastic packaging is recycled, the remainder being either landfilled or incinerated.

And the pharmaceutical industry is rising to the challenge, with the market for sustainable pharma packaging expected to see a CAGR of 15.4 per cent by 2027. Compostable packaging is a case in point. Bayer recently announced it had joined the Blister Pack Collective, using dry moulded fibre technology to help cut 100,000 tonnes of plastic medicine packaging used by industry each year in partnership with PulPac.

Lon Johnson, vice-president of Sales/ Marketing at Colbert Packaging, reports a significant trend toward decarbonisation and net zero goal-setting. “They are encouraging supply chain participation in the effort. These North American companies are taking their cues from European counterparts who have led the charge to sustainability,” he said. “We have seen an increase in supplier sustainability surveys from our customers in recent years. More and more, they are looking to work with suppliers who are committed to the same goals and vision for sustainability that they have.” Single-material blisters research has been ongoing for over 20 years with the aim of facilitating their disposal because, generally, blisters for tablets or pills have an aluminium and a pvc moulding with a complex disposal mechanism. Thermoforming machines from CAM Packaging, which employs more than 700 worldwide, produced the first single-material blister over 20 years ago and today they are able to produce blisters in a wide range of materials, including PET-PET, PP-PP, PPCOCPP-PP and PE-PE, eliminating the aluminium and multilayer film.

A blister made entirely with a single recyclable polymer avoids a complex and costly selection processes, cuts waste and minimises the environmental impact, according to the company. These new materials can be perfectly integrated into existing packaging lines, thus reducing overall investment costs. Single-material blisters produced on their thermoforming machines guarantee maximum product protection, ensuring correct conservation from production to consumption and, as with “traditional” blisters, offer freedom of shape and size, adapting to specific needs of each product and guarantee the aesthetic quality of the packaging.

These single-material blisters meet the pharmaceutical standards and regulations for safety and hygienic production and consumer protection. The result is the possibility of associating own brand with an important commitment to sustainability, allowing consumers to make informed choices and differentiating themselves from standard blister products.

Another such pioneer is Japan’s Astellas Pharma which began using biomass-based plastics made from plant-derived materials in blister packages in 2021 and became what CEO Kenji Yasukawa claimed to be the world’s first use of biomass plastic for blister packages for drugs. While they spoke of derived biomass-based plastic, polyethylene, from sugarcane, which accounts for half of the raw material in their package, other researchers have found that seaweed could be a potential alternative. In a article for the marine resources journal MDPI, life sciences expert Silvia Lomartire of the University of Coimbra in Lisbon explained how seaweeds have become widely involved in biotechnological applications “due to the variety of their constituent bioactive compounds: The consumption of seaweeds dates to ancient times; however, only from the last few decades of research can we explain the mechanisms with action and the potential of seaweed-derived bioactive compounds, which has led to their involvement in food, cosmetic, pharmaceutical, and nutraceutical industries.”

It’s all part of the movement to attenuate plastic waste with ecologic alternatives known as “bioplastics” - plastics derived from biological sources that are biodegradable and easy to recycle, and their production requires less cost and energy relative to oil-based materials.

“Most of the food, cosmetic, and pharmaceutical products in the market are packaged in plastic, which takes more than 400 years to decompose, having a major impact on the environment.” She added. “Therefore, the need for new sources of biodegradable film is a crucial point for the safeguard of our planet.”

According to Pharmaceutical Technology, pharmaceutical brands are ahead of the curve when it comes to setting aggressive sustainability targets and such influence is likely to have a knock-on effect on the entire pharmaceutical packaging supply chain. Their researchers ranked companies on the ambitions of their sustainability targets and named Novo Nordisk, Lundbeck and Johnson and Johnson as the top three. Rich Quelch, Global Head of Marketing, at the UK pharmaceutical packaging company Origin, told the European Pharmaceutical review that product packaging represents the first impression of a brand and its sustainability credentials, reinforcing the fat that a third of UK consumers were willing to spend more money to receive sustainable products and services.

“However, for the pharmaceutical industry, the challenge is not as simple as just switching materials,” he added. “An industry that is among the world’s biggest polluters is caught in a balancing act between satisfying the health and safety demands of industry regulators and meeting the needs of modern eco-conscious consumers.”