numerous obstacles may have hindered pharmaceutical pack innovation over the years but despite increased regulation could pack designers soon enjoy more freedom tony corbin reports.from containment and protection to convenience, identification and delivery, packaging&rsquos role in the pharmaceutical market cannot be underestimated. while there is a drive for customisation within pharma packaging, there have been concerns that innovation is being hindered by factors such as budgets and regulation.in regard to the former, the importance of pharma packaging is rarely if ever reflected by the allocated budgets of pharmaceutical companies, which might seem baffling considering that last year research business ims predicted that the global pharmaceutical industry will reach sales of as much as 1.2tn by 2017 &ndash representing annual growth of 36 and what should be a growing market for pharmaceutical packaging suppliers.while many feel that the industry doesn&rsquot appear to have made great strides since the 1960s, stefan casey, business innovation manager at the retail institute doesn&rsquot think it is down to a lack of creativity within pharma packaging companies and certainly sees the lack of investment as a major stumbling block. &ldquothere&rsquos no question the industry is creative and innovative in new product development and devices but funds need to be invested in the entire product experience,&rdquo says casey. &ldquopackaging is part of this experience and will only grow and become more important as new technologies, materials and consumer interactions develop.&rdquolack of funds might be one of the reasons pharma packaging is far behind the developments seen in other markets where the &lsquowow factor&rsquo might be a prerequisite.&ldquoinnovation, creativity, and consumer centric appeal is not something you would readily associate with prescribed pharmaceutical packaging,&rdquo casey continues.&ldquoeven with the rise and increasing availability of &lsquoover the counter&rsquo otc medicines and treatments, they are &lsquoembryonic&rsquo in their design and branding compared to more exciting counterparts in fmcg and retail packaging.&rdquooptimising packagingthe reluctance to invest heavily in packaging, however, is something that could be changing as pharmaceutical companies are becoming increasingly interested in optimising packaging. wilfried schmahl, segment development manager at stora enso certainly thinks that&rsquos the case. &ldquowe believe that the pharmaceutical companies will increasingly pay attention to packaging, optimising its quality and costefficiency, and also new service tools will be required,&rdquo he says.&ldquowe are looking into safety coding systems and convenience aspects for the elderly, for example.&rdquowhile some companies might be waking up to the idea of spending more on packaging, there&rsquos no let up when it comes to regulation. the falsified medicines directive, aimed at tackling the growing problem of counterfeit medicines and the increasing amounts of substandard pharmaceutical ingredients entering the eu, will certainly have an impact as compliance will be mandatory by 2017. sterilisation will also be compulsory and these measures, combined with existing requirements which can appear contradictory, might be a potential tension headache.&ldquothe amount of information that needs to be presented is increasing whilst the aging population means the importance of readability of the information, and the size, is also increasing,&rdquo says craig stobie, head of the global life sciences team at domino. &ldquothis is a real balance for packaging real estate. there is also a big drive to reduce inventory and make product &lsquojust in time&rsquo whilst the variety and number of skus increases over time. there is also a need to counter the increasing threat of diverted or falsified products so the products need to incorporate brand protection features that are accessible and widely known but also must remain secret in a number of ways to protect the validity of that security feature. there is also a balance between the ease of opening, which is harder for an aging population with reduced dexterity, but also enabling a good level of child resistant protection.&rdquoit is perhaps the contradictions lying within the requirements that pose many of the problems designers might face but they are not insurmountable and, while balances have to be struck between child resistant and senior friendly for example, these and the larger legislative issues needn&rsquot be the enemy of creativity and can actually provide inspiration for pack designers.&ldquopharmaceutical packaging innovation was never hampered by legislation in fact it is one of the driving forces in this market,&rdquo says dr siddharth dutta, industry manager &ndash life sciences, frost & sullivan. &ldquodue to changing legislations in different countries, companies are innovating newer ways to package pharmaceutical products. more joint ventures and acquisitions have taken place in the past two to three years, where smaller companies with novel technologies have partnered with larger packaging companies and have been involved with technology transfer.&rdquocasey adds &ldquothe legislative introduction that all packs now require &lsquounique codes&rsquo addressing traceability and the government&rsquos sustainability and reduction targets are simple challenges that should be overcome. fmcg and retail are already dealing with similar regulation so whilst some pharmaceutical organisations will see it as another barrier to creative innovation or investment in packaging, most should negotiate these with relative ease.&rdquo&ldquofmcg and retail industries have readily embraced a consumer centric approach to design and innovation in packaging, combined with breakthroughs in technology and material advancements. some of these are finally being recognised and adopted by the pharmaceutical industry but only really over the last couple of years.&rdquosuch an approach is likely to shape the future of pharma packaging as the relationship with the consumer in this area is obviously a very important one. there have been numerous consumer targeted pack advancements in recent years including the introduction of smart tags, such as prooftag from electronic tag solutions, tac labels for example, gaviscon bottle label booklets and qr codes.&ldquothere&rsquos no question the industry is creative and innovative in new product development and devices but funds need to be invested in the entire product experience,&rdquo casey continues. &ldquopackaging is part of this experience and will only grow and become more important as new technologies, materials and consumer interactions develop.&rdquoconsumerdriven trends were touched on in frost & sullivan&rsquos recent report new technologies that will impact the global pharmaceutical packaging industry in which dutta notes &ldquotechnologies such as radiofrequency identification and bar codes will ensure that the correct dosage is delivered to the patient, making patient management safer than ever and changing the dynamics of the global pharmaceutical packaging industry.&rdquocasey adds&ldquothere&rsquos much innovation in indicators and seals chemical, inksbased as there is in functionality openings, closures and resealability and materials within packaging,&rdquo says casey. &ldquoall contribute to part of the development and lifecycle to all packaging, for all industries but the future is reliant on digital technology intervention and consumer adoption rates. qr codes and augmented reality ar applications are being utilised by pharmaceutical packaging but, as found in fmcg and retail, ar has had mixed success to date. both these technologies are hindered due to their reliance on being connected to the web so it&rsquos not a complete consumer experience &ndash yet.&rdquobob houghton, head of marketing mps adds &ldquomany innovations are often overlooked by the consumer and the label sector has introduced many groundbreaking developments that provide convenience, pack safety and track and trace features. labels regularly incorporate variable datacoding. the technology offers numerous benefits including enhanced product security, consumer data and promotional opportunities.&rdquofantasy pharmawith so much change occurring and predicted for the not too distant future, one wonders what pack designers could achieve without any of the aforementioned restrictions&ldquoa pharmaceutical pack that registers pills being removed, and is able to interact with smart phones to provide reminders, warnings and advice as programmed&rdquo would be the ideal pack for gill wright, design and development director at mps&rsquo healthcare division. although she is sure the technology is already available. &ldquothese futuristic possibilities all exist today and are just the start of a revolution in electronics manufacturing which will drive major innovations in the way packaging is used and perceived,&rdquo she explains. &ldquothe possibilities are endless &ndash how many of today&rsquos apps were imagined when the smart phone was being designed&rdquostobie says that in an unfettered environment he would opt for something that is &ldquoeasy opening and user friendly, such as a wallet pack, with very little regulatory information but instead a single 2d barcode that would then be used to take patients to an easily updatable online resource. the packaging real estate could then be used for very simple bullet point advice, ideally in pictogram form, on dosage, storage and basic key information for example, taken with or without food&rdquo.wearable technology could play an increasing part in future pharma packaging as it is already in use on devices that measure heart rate, calorie consumption and stress levels.&ldquothese are readily available with further monitoring and measurements of other medical conditions being developed,&rdquo concludes casey.voxpop can pharma packs catch up with innovations seen in fmcgreid ledererpresident, carton service&ldquohighly regulated pharma has more of a challenge with packaging compliance than the average consumer product. packages have to serve many masters. that is not to say that packaging cannot be innovative, attractive in terms of branding and unique in terms of materials and finishes.&rdquostefan caseybusiness innovation manager, the retail institute&ldquothere are an abundance of emerging examples of innovative packaging solutions. we are seeing them becoming readily adopted and available in pharmaceutical packaging but compared to the rate the fmcg and retail industries are launching new packs there&rsquos still a long way to go for the industry.&rdquobob houghtonhead of marketing and communication,mps&ldquothere have been a number of innovative pack designs over the last 10 years in the healthcare sector especially in the otc area of the market. these have included neat pocketsized packs that fold open to reveal contents such as panodol&rsquos consumer pack or packs which have more functional benefits.&rdquopaul jenkinsmanaging director,the packhub&ldquoyes. i believe it already has. we track hundreds of innovations at thepackhub and what we&rsquore seeing are examples of excellent pharma packaging innovations around child resistant packaging, portion control, dosing, tracebility and encouraging patient compliance. patent free &lsquogenerics&rsquo also inspires innovation.&rdquo 
