As the average life expectancy increases and the economy globalizes, the pharma industry continues to evolve – as does the pharma packaging supply chain. So how about you? Will your pharma packaging be able to keep up with expectations? Read on to discover which challenges lie ahead.
1. Shipping directly to patients
Creating competitive advantage in the future will inevitably require rolling out patient-centric supply chains. For pharma manufacturers to be able to ship directly to patients, strict monitoring of supplies will be crucial. Perhaps even more importantly in the age of GDPR, shipping directly to patients means having to establish a strict privacy policy.
2. Ensuring patient safety
Pharma companies will also need to figure out a way to make sure packages delivered to the patient’s front door can’t fall into the wrong hands. Extra attention will need to be paid to childproof packaging concepts as well as track-and-trace technology.
3. Boosting patient compliance
As many patients will be administering their own medication at home without professional supervision, direct shipping should also involve taking the necessary precautions to ensure patient compliance.
4. Temperature-controlled packaging
Cold-chain transport is nothing new in the pharma industry. The main challenge in the future, however, will be making temperature-controlled transport cost-effective enough for shipment to individual patients.
5. Sustainable pharma packaging supply chains
As consumers grow more eco-conscious each day, last but not least on the list of challenges is establishing a sustainable pharma packaging supply chain. Using biodegradable packaging materials like paperboard is one thing, but evidently manufacturers will always need to take good manufacturing practices (GMP) and high-quality benchmarks into account as well as implement a strict assessment strategy throughout the supply chain and follow-up on all levels of their organization. Inspired by Packaging Digest