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More is going on in RFID apart from news of the decision by the California Board of Pharmacy to delay requirement for e-pedigree tracking of drugs until 2011. RFID analysts from ABI Research commented about RFID developments and drivers in pharmaceutical markets. Analyst Peter Poorman (shown here) says the current state of affairs in RFID is typical to that of many technologies. "After a period of excitement and then a period of disappointment, there follows a period of adoption on an upward ramp. I think we’re at the beginning of that ramp with RFID."
Pharmaceutical firms seek packaging line improvements to cut costs, biologics present packaging challenges, and medical device growth is driven by aging baby boomers. These treatment advances bode well for the healthcare/life sciences packaging community. Packaging materials need to offer protection from point of manufacture to the “last mile” where healthcare products reach a patient. Packaging materials must provide barriers for moisture, oxygen, light and heat, and they may include overt and/or covert security measures to combat counterfeiting and diversion. Equipment will need to package products more efficiently, be validatable and versatile.
• Biopharmaceutical and biomedical technologies and treatments will be advanced in large part by developing countries. Although only 5% to 7% of biological products now in clinical development will actually make it to the market, they will play an important role as the life sciences industry begins to develop custom solutions for individual patients rather than focusing exclusively on the larger market. But such treatments will require a change in packaging and processing methods, as well as regulatory procedures.
Drug delivery systems and patient-friendly packaging could create a new kind of branded intellectual property that might be more defensible than drug patents. That's according to Eric Park of Ziba, a design consultancy in "Pharmaceuticals, The Ailing Drug Industry." He was quoted in an article published in the January 25, 2007, issue of the Economist.
An example of such package design cited in the article is GlaxoSmithKline's Advair, an asthma therapy packaged in "an innovative, multi-use inhaler that is breath-activated and easier to use." Last October, GSK announced that it had "submitted a supplemental new drug application to the Food and Drug Administration to expand labeling for" its Advair Diskus fluticasone propionate and salmeterol inhalation powder in the U.S.
Expiring patents on blockbuster drugs challenges the pharmaceutical industry. The Economist's article pointed out Pfizer's recent announcement that it will cut some 10,000 jobs globally, including five research centers and several manufacturing sites. "When patents on blockbusters like Lipitor run out, generic competition ensures that prices collapse quickly. Unless drug firms continually bring enough new products to market to replace lost revenues, they will shrivel and die," said the story.
Meanwhile, the generic drug market continues to grow. The Economist notes, "Big Pharma has not given up the fight. Its armies of lawyers aggressively defend patents, even flimsy ones taken out on minor tweaks to existing treatments. American firms, including Pfizer and Merck, are trying to launch their own 'authorized generics' a few months before patents expire to try to blunt the impact of competition."
Product segmentation is a requirement to compete in toothpaste, but even individual subcategories are becoming so populated that segmentation alone is no longer enough for product distinction.
Respondents to a recent Packworld.com survey provide insights into the future of generic vs branded drug packaging.
“‘Cheapest first’ will force drug companies to find ways for reducing cost of goods,” said an employee of a pharmaceutical maker that also produces transdermal products. “Generic and branded products will begin to look much the same. Generics will not be so apt to follow the innovator. Big pharma will be forced to be more frugal.”
“Generic and branded is a balancing equation,” said a respondent from a medical device maker. “Every packaging engineer out there [has] a goal to reduce package costs, but innovation pushes to make changes. It’s a cycle.”
Costs were also on the mind of a nutraceutical company respondent, who said, “The conveying of information still needs to be as important. To keep the cost of generics down, packaging designs will have to become more clever at achieving function at a lower cost.”
