The Shift from Containment to Protection: Packaging Trends Impacting Pharma

The pharmaceutical industry navigated a variety of hurdles in 2025, some positive and some complicated by external factors. The boom in novel treatments for cancer, new delivery methods, and personalized medicine came along with geopolitical pressures, such as tariffs imposed by the United States.

To learn how these challenges impacted the pharmaceutical packaging industry, PharmTech spoke with Badre Hammond, VP of Global Operations and GM, APAC for Aptar CSP Technologies, a materials sciences solution provider; Ward Smith, director of Marketing and Business Development for Keystone Folding Box Co., a paperboard packaging solutions developer for the pharma industry; and Dexter Tjoa, CEO of Tjoapack, a contract pharmaceutical packaging organization.

What trends did you see in 2025 for pharmaceutical packaging?

Hammond (Aptar CSP Technologies): In 2025, we saw a clear shift toward functional packaging materials designed to actively protect drug products, rather than merely contain them. This was especially pronounced for solid oral dose products facing stability, nitrosamine, or shelf-life challenges. Customers increasingly prioritized packaging that integrates moisture-, oxygen-, or impurity-mitigation capabilities directly into primary formats, while also remaining compatible with high-speed manufacturing and existing regulatory pathways.

Smith (Keystone Folding Box Co.): Packaging is being asked to play more prominent roles than mere containment or protection. For example, we’re seeing more functionally integrated paperboard designs where child resistance and tamper evidence are built directly into the structure, not added as disposable components. In clinical trials, strong interest continues to build for adherence visibility, either through smart packaging features or external digital tools that track dose removal. Across solid oral and large-molecule products, packaging also is becoming more patient-centric, helping support correct and confident use.

Tjoa (Tjoapack): In 2025, it was really a continuation of the previous year's trends. As for us as an organization, our right to exist is sort of reinforced by the general trends in the market for more specialized drugs. People are looking for more expertise, rather than a one-stop-shop solution. In terms of packaging, we see the same formats burgeoning like the previous years, with lots of biological products coming online, as well as biosimilars. Surface growth for us was related to vials and syringes and the like; not necessarily innovative in the drug delivery sense, but certainly a continuation of the rise of biologic products.

How have sustainability efforts impacted the choice in materials for pharmaceutical packaging?

Smith: Sustainability has become a procurement requirement, influencing every design decision. Pharma teams are actively working to eliminate or significantly reduce plastic in secondary packaging and rely more on single-material paperboard solutions. By engineering locking features and tamper evidence into the structure itself, brands can reduce shrink films, labels, and mixed-material waste. Sustainability is also conceptually maturing, graduating from mere symbols and claims to comprehensive, structural sustainability in which performance and recyclability coexist without extra components.

Tjoa: I think many companies are looking for pragmatic approaches in what suppliers are able to offer them. Certainly on the outer packaging, people are definitely keen on making sure that things are sustainably sourced, at the very least, if not from partly or fully recyclable origins. But I would say it's pretty much a pragmatic approach first, if you look at primary packaging components and materials that touch the product quality, the barrier properties definitely still take priority over if they're sustainable or not. But the interest continues to be high in that sense, certainly on primary materials; it's still pretty nascent in terms of pick up within the industry. It's definitely not the standard, yet. But, interest continues to be high.

Hammond: Sustainability efforts have prompted the industry to rethink materials without compromising drug protection. Unsurprisingly, the Europe, Middle East, and Africa market is leading this effort through initiatives such as mono-material requirements tied to a hard deadline of 2030. As a result, rather than simply downgauging or switching polymers, many pharmaceutical companies are looking for ‘do more with less’ solutions, meaning materials that improve stability and reduce waste, recalls, or over-packaging. There is growing interest in designs that extend shelf life, reduce cold chain dependence, and minimize total material usage while maintaining regulatory and performance requirements.

Are you seeing innovations in the materials used for pharmaceutical packaging?

Hammond: Innovation in packaging materials is increasingly focused on material science and performance, as opposed to aesthetics. For example, we are seeing greater adoption of active and engineered materials that address real pharmaceutical risks, such as moisture ingress, oxygen exposure, and impurity formation, all while fitting into familiar formats like blisters, bottles, and sachets. Such solutions allow pharmaceutical companies to solve stability problems without redesigning the drug products themselves.

Tjoa: On the type of materials, not really. That continues to be, for the majority, the same choices as before. I think where people are trying to differentiate themselves is in how the packaging is used and what type of information is displayed; we are seeing some companies take up more real estate for bar coding in QR coding for digital information. So, the digital component of the packaging, that's in part driven by legislation, of course, but also with digital information, inpatient information leaflets, and from the pharmaceutical companies themselves, who want to provide better or different types of information, particularly to physicians or pharmacists.

Smith: Yes, especially in performance-engineered paperboard. New fiber-based substrates can now support child resistance, moisture protection, and fast line speeds once assumed to require plastic. In clinical research settings, secondary packaging is also being enhanced with data carriers and compatibility with digital adherence tools. Rather than adopting exotic new materials, the industry is advancing the ones already trusted, making them smarter, more secure, and better aligned with sustainability goals.

Have there been any advancements in packaging equipment?

Smith: Equipment is evolving toward speed, adaptability, and connectivity. Machines for solid-dose products now handle multiple carton formats and integrated safety features with fewer line changeovers. Biologic packaging systems emphasize gentle automation and secure sealing for temperature-controlled materials. Increasingly, equipment is data-ready, capturing process information and integrating with digital systems to improve traceability and operational oversight, supporting both commercial production and clinical supply environments.

Hammond: Equipment advancements have focused on flexibility and compatibility rather than radical redesign. For solid dose drugs, manufacturers are investing in lines that can handle advanced films, inserts, and integrated functional materials without sacrificing speed or validation timelines. In biologics, there is increased emphasis on scalable, lower-infrastructure solutions that reduce reliance on large sterilization or containment systems while maintaining safety and regulatory confidence.

Has the geopolitical atmosphere of the past few years impacted how contract manufacturers are approaching partnerships or investments?

Hammond: Geopolitical uncertainty has accelerated a move toward resilient, regionalized supply chains. Pharma companies and contract manufacturers are increasingly selective, favoring partners that can offer material innovation, geographic redundancy, and long-term collaboration. There is less appetite for single-source risk and more interest in technologies that can be deployed across multiple sites and regions with consistent performance and regulatory alignment.

Smith: Supply chain resilience is now a primary driver in packaging decisions. Contract manufacturers are prioritizing regional supply options, reliable lead times, and partners with sustainability credibility. As a result, relationships have become more strategic, moving away from cost-only evaluations toward collaboration and continuity. Packaging suppliers are expected to help solve broader challenges—speed to market, flexibility, and risk reduction—rather than simply delivering components.

Tjoa: Yes, definitely. As far as real, true impact of, predominantly, the rhetoric coming out of the US government has on the supply chain, of the pharmaceutical sector, I think that's still really to be seen. These changes take years, so I don't think we have seen where things are going yet, but certainly the conversation has shifted quite a lot. Where before we were looking at what sort of capabilities are more optimal for a type of product, and where do we have that (either in Europe or the United States), it's more of a regional conversation now. How can we have a North American supply chain? How can you support that capability regionally and vice versa in Europe? So that certainly has shifted conversations we have with customers and how they're approaching supply chain planning in terms of investments.

What do you anticipate for 2026 and beyond for pharmaceutical packaging?

Tjoa: Packaging is sort of the final step before distribution in the importance of a real expert player. We see a real value for certain types of customers or, albeit more certainly, the biotech and more innovative-type companies that may not have expanded manufacturing supply chain networks and teams that can support them; the benefits of having a real expertise on this final assembly piece before distribution can make a lot of difference in controlling waste in the supply chain, controlling delivery times and fulfillment lead times. The activity of packaging is obviously not the most complicated or the most scientific, but when, where, and how you do it can have big financial, as well as reliability of your supply chain, impacts overall, which then obviously impacts availability of product to patient or what sort of stock you keep, and that ties up money, as well as increases risk for wastages, etc. We see people being more conscious about it, and that, I think, will continue along the trends of sustainability. It's not just about materials that are sustainable; it's also how you use them and control and minimize waste for packaging materials, but also the drug product itself, so that most of it will go to patients rather than a good chunk of it in the bin.

Hammond: Looking ahead, pharmaceutical packaging will continue evolving from a cost-driven component to a strategic enabler of drug performance. We expect greater adoption of platform technologies that address stability, compliance, and regulatory risk across multiple products. The winners will be solutions that integrate seamlessly into existing manufacturing, scale globally, and solve real pharmaceutical challenges without adding complexity to the drug development process.

Smith: Packaging will become an even more active contributor to clinical trial precision and patient outcomes. Expect broader use of packaging that supports adherence visibility in trials, simplifies patient steps, and reduces potential for use errors. Meanwhile, fiber-based designs will continue to replace plastic-heavy formats while maintaining regulatory functionality. The future lies in packaging that unites functional design, environmental responsibility, and actionable insights to strengthen product performance and development success.

About the author

Susan Haigney is lead editor of Pharmaceutical Technology®.