Pharmaceutical Packaging

Almost everyone is familiar with the term Packaging because a major portion of our daily shopping consists of products that are packed in wrappers, boxes, or any other material. We all know that packaging is for the protection and safety of the products. As we demand that our daily used products for eating and drinking should be in good packaging to ensure their high quality, in the same way, the need for packaging for medicinal products is more critical to protect the products.

Why Packaging

Millions of products are manufactured in different pharmaceutical industries of the world in a day.

The manufacturing of all these products will have no benefit if these products are not properly packed after manufacturing and before their dispatch to the market because without packaging no one can get claimed results of the product.

Importance Of Packaging

The packaging of pharmaceutical products is important because of following some main reasons

To maintain product stability and efficacy.
To protect the product from degradation.
Give identity to the product.
Contain Coding for
- Batch Number
- Manufacturing Date
- Expiration Date
- Price

Characteristic of Good Packaging Material

Following are some main characteristics which a pharmaceutical packaging must have

Give protection to the product from environmental factors like temperature and humidity.
Should act as a good barrier for moisture penetration.
Should act as a good barrier for gas penetration.
Provide Protection from oxidation or reduction.
Provide light protection when required.
Prevent breakage and leakage during transportation.
Coding or printing on packaging material should remain stable.

Types Of Packaging

There are three types of packaging which are as follow

Primary Packaging
Secondary Packaging
Tertiary Packaging

Primary Packaging

Primary packaging is the type of packaging in which packaging material is in direct contact with the product.
Primary packs may be a single dose or multi-dose.
Single-dose packs contain one dose which is used at once.
Sachet or ampules are examples of single-dose primary packs.
A jar or bottle containing many tablets or Vial containing multi doses is an example of a Multi-dose primary Packaging.
Following are some examples of Primary Packaging
- Blister
- Strip
- Ampule
- Vial
- Bottle
- Sachet
- Bag
- Tubes
- Prefilled Syringes

Important Note:

Primary packaging must be compatible with the product.
It should not react with the product.
Neither anything should come out of the primary pack to the product nor product to the primary pack.

Secondary Packaging

Secondary packaging is the type of packaging which is not in direct contact with the product but contains primary pack, leaflet and measuring cup etc.
Example of secondary packaging is a box containing a glass bottle or carton containing blister.
Secondary packs may contain one primary pack e.g unit carton box containing glass syrup bottle.
Secondary packs may contain more than one primary pack e.g unit carton box containing two, three or more blisters.

Tertiary Packaging

Tertiary packaging is the type of packaging which contains multiple secondary packs.
It gives protection to the packs during transportation.
It facilitates handling of product after packaging
Examples of tertiary packaging are shippers or cardboard boxes.