Packaging of medicinal products: Important trends for pharmaceutical producers and machine manufacturers post-covid

Biopharmaceuticals are the real mimosas: heat, moisture, oxygen ingress or simply just the wrong light can cause the sensitive drugs, which are made from living organisms or cells, to lose their effect. This became particularly clear in the Covid pandemic: the new mRNA vaccines from Biontech-Pfizer and Moderna require sophisticated packaging and logistics concepts to ensure storage temperatures between -60 and -80 °C, for example. And although manufacturers are working feverishly and also successfully on less sensitive active ingredients - packaging remains an essential element in the fight against past and future pandemics.

The example of vaccines only highlights the importance of pharmaceutical packaging. Every second new drug approved in the EU is now produced using genetic engineering, is particularly sensitive to environmental influences and must be packaged accordingly. In addition, there are increasing regulatory requirements for production technology, such as Annex 1 to Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP guidelines), which was finalised in 2022: This will newly regulate the sterile production and the filling and packaging of medicinal products - with the aim of reducing contamination risks for the medicine.

Bausch+Ströbel kills two birds with one stone with a new magnetic transport system that moves the packaging material through the machine: In contrast to common drives, a fixed cycle time is no longer required, which increases flexibility. At the same time, the magnetic drive makes wipers and bellows seals unnecessary, thus eliminating a cause of contamination in the sterile area. Optima has also addressed the transport of packaging materials in the machine: With the new FillCell formatless transport system, the main aim is to increase product yield. Especially with expensive active ingredients, it is important to avoid losses during machine start-up.

Machine manufacturers are taking this requirement into account with new dosing and filling systems, but also optimised transport, monitoring and labelling solutions. Digital technologies are playing an increasingly important role here: this begins with training operators with virtual reality goggles on digitised equipment, extends to the seamless recording of production parameters in the production process, and ends with the evaluation and visualisation of key figures such as Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE), which are becoming more and more important in the growing competition of the pharmaceutical industry.

The Körber Group, for example, has dedicated itself to this topic, using its Manufacturing Execution System (MES) to analyse the operational efficiency of biopharmaceutical manufacturing processes on the basis of different and previously unnetworked data. Among other things, this should enable biopharmaceutical manufacturers to significantly accelerate their time-to-market. Uhlmann Pac-Systeme networks machines and entire plants of any manufacturer via interfaces with a new software (Pexcite), thus enabling centralised monitoring and control. In addition to looking at line efficiency and planning set-up times, this also makes it easier to comply with regulatory obligations.