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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.
Developed countries in Western Europe, the United States, and Japan will account for nearly three-fourths of the demand for worldwide pharmaceutical packaging. The Freedonia Group projected this demand to increase 5.9% per year to more than $34 billion in 2011. In its new study, World Pharmaceutical Packaging, Freedonia notes that China will provide the strongest growth opportunities, while India and Brazil “will evolve into fast-growing pharmaceutical packaging markets as drug-producing sectors are upgraded and diversified,” especially generic drugs.
By 2010, U.S. demand for such packaging is forecast to reach $4.4 billion. What's behind the projected growth? "Pharmaceutical and biological applications will lead growth as advances in the life sciences contribute new injectable and inhalation therapies for cancer, heart disorders and other diseases. "That's according to "Sterile Medical Packaging," a new study from The Freedonia Group, Inc..
By 2010, U.S. demand for such packaging is forecast to reach $4.4 billion. What’s behind the projected growth? “Pharmaceutical and biological applications will lead growth as advances in the life sciences contribute new injectable and inhalation therapies for cancer, heart disorders and other diseases.”That’s according to “Sterile Medical Packaging,” a new study from The Freedonia Group, Inc.
By mid-year, a multicomponent inhaler containing Pfizer's Exubera insulin powder will offer diabetics the first inhaled form of the drug, eliminating the need for an injection.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Exubera for adults with both Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes January 27, a day after the European Commission approved the product for use in the European Union. Exubera's efficacy and safety was studied in more than 2,500 adults (including both diabetes types) for an average of 20 months.
A Feb. 7 article at www.fdanews.com described Exubera as “the first new insulin delivery option introduced since the discovery of insulin in the 1920s.”
