Pharmaceutical secondary packaging is a vital step in the product supply chain as it encloses life-saving drugs and therapies, preserving the identity, quality, integrity, and stability of the packaged drug product. It also plays a key role in marketing and brand projection for a product.

Approximately, around 50 drugs are approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (US FDA) annually. Further, studies indicate that more than 100,000 tons of pharmaceutical products are consumed globally per year. In addition, over the next five years, the global pharmaceutical market is projected to grow at a CAGR of 4.7%, with global drug sales anticipated to raise revenues worth USD 1.5 trillion in 2023.

This continuously growing pipeline of pharmaceutical drug products has inadvertently led to an increase in the demand for their associated primary packaging and secondary packaging solutions. Specifically, pharmaceutical secondary packaging is a vital step in the product supply chain as it encloses life-saving drugs and therapies, preserving the identity, quality, integrity and stability of the packaged drug product.

Since 2018, partnership activity within the pharmaceutical secondary packaging domain has increased with a whooping annualized growth rate of 85%. Acquisitions have captured a substantial share in the partnerships related to pharmaceutical secondary packaging, during the period of 2018-2021. This was followed by manufacturing and packaging agreements, which have captured a significant share of the partnerships inked in this domain.

Further, the maximum number of partnerships in this domain was observed in 2020, followed by those signed in 2021. This rise in partnership activity in the last two years can be attributed to the increasing demand of pharmaceutical secondary packaging providers to meet the drug supply demand amidst the COVID-19 pandemic

According to a survey conducted by Nice Insight, CDMO Outsourcing Survey, specifically for clinical and commercial scale operations, nearly 60% of the pharmaceutical companies currently outsource their primary packaging needs, while 43% of the players outsource their secondary packaging requirements.

Landscape

During our research for our report, we found out that, more than 160 players, claim to offer pharmaceutical secondary packaging services. As per our analysis, blisters are the prominent type of packaging containers for which majority of the companies offer its pharmaceutical secondary packaging services. This is followed by companies offering secondary packaging services for vials and bottles.

Trend in demand

There is a trend seen of using boxes and cartoons this could be because of the advantages offered by them, such as protection, lightweight, versatility and convenience to mold into various flexible packaging forms. The demand for pharmaceutical secondary packaging, across various packaging formats, is anticipated to grow at an annualized rate of ~8% in the coming years.

 You can go through our report for more information on the demand trend in this field, we have done an in-depth analysis to estimate the current and future demand for pharmaceutical secondary packaging, based on several relevant parameters, such as type of secondary packaging (boxes, cartons and pouches), type of primary packaging packed (ampoules, blister packs, bottles, cartridges, syringes and vials) and key geographical regions (North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, MENA, Latin America and rest of the world), for the period 2022-2035.

The increasing trend has led to an increase in number of players, which is why our report also contains a comprehensive of the players in this field and their performance, this will help you in taking the right decision.

Conclusion

Pharmaceutical secondary packaging comes with a lot of benefits in terms of containment, protection, preservation, identification and convivence. It is important to pay ample amount of care even to the packaging as it plays a significant role in quality and integrity. The number of companies adopting this, along with the number of players in this field are increasing. The pandemic has also played a significant role in increasing the number of partnerships in this domain.