Innovative packaging OPTIONS
Patients and consumers now increasingly expect packaging for pharmaceutical and nutraceutical products to be easy to open and convenient to use. We have developed a range of user-friendly packaging solutions to ensure our products are safe and accessible for all patients and consumers. Our new, easy-to-open tablet tube stoppers, for example, can be removed with a short rip of the safety ring, and easily lifted off thanks to an ergonomic finger mold grip.
Of course, the design features that make packaging accessible for particular groups, such as the elderly, must be carefully balanced with appropriate child-resistant mechanisms, tamper-proof devices, and other safety elements. Therefore, at HERMES PHARMA, we offer a range of solutions to ensure every product meets its specific requirements. Our orally disintegrating granules, for instance, are packaged in convenient laminated aluminum PET foil stick packs that can be laser-cut to ease opening. Thanks to their smart design, our stick packs have been certified child-resistant and suitable for adults in accordance with ISO 14375 and US 16 CFR § 1700.20.
We also consider the requirements of manufacturers, pharmacies, and retailers when developing packaging solutions. By employing design innovations, such as cardboard shelf-ready packaging (SRP), we can ensure products remain visible on the shelf and are easy for retailers to handle.
Our state-of-the-art equipment allows us to offer various primary and secondary packaging options for user-friendly dosage forms:
Our new sustainable packaging solutions
Given the strict requirements of good manufacturing practices (GMP), conventional pharmaceutical and nutraceutical packaging such as foils, blisters, and tubes are often designed primarily with product safety and stability in mind. Responsible sourcing and recyclability are often lower priorities, meaning most pharmaceutical packaging comes from unsustainable resources and ends up in landfills.
However, more countries want to become climate neutral, which entails reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and regulators are increasingly focusing on sustainability. The European Parliament’s Revision of the Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive, for example, states that, by 2030, all EU packaging should be reusable or recyclable in an economically viable way. It’s therefore crucial that companies take action to remain relevant and compliant with new regulations, all while remaining profitable.
At HERMES PHARMA, we help our customers do that.
Sustainable primary packaging options
Primary packaging must be safe, stable, and provide a good barrier to protect its contents. But while commonly used materials such as multilayer foils meet these needs, they are poorly recyclable and made from fossil-based materials, making them difficult to reuse.
HERMES PHARMA offers recyclable primary packaging alternatives to help support a circular economy. Our new tubes, for example, are made from sustainable bio-based materials such as sugarcane-derived high-density polyethylene (HDPE).
What’s more, we continually reduce the amount of material used in our primary packaging — while still ensuring its integrity. For example, we deploy thinner polyethylene tubes and use new tube stoppers without distance holders, which helps us save ~11 tons of material a year. By increasing the capacity of plastic tubes for chewable tablets (from 20 tablets per tube to 30 tablets per tube), we also saved ~5.4 tons of plastic per year and passed significant packaging tax savings onto our customers.
Sustainable secondary packaging options
Secondary packaging such as cardboard boxes encloses primary packaging and helps protect products during transport, shipment, and in-store handling. It plays a pivotal role in product branding, as well as carrying information about contents, dosing, and more.
Unfortunately, traditional cardboard can be resource-inefficient and harm the environment. Indeed, the foresting practices associated with unsustainable pulp and paper operations have had devastating impacts on some of the world’s most ecologically important places and species.
HERMES PHARMA only uses cardboard that is certifiable by the Forest Stewardship Council® (FSC) in its secondary packaging. We have also implemented new types of secondary packaging based on alternative paper materials. These are either made from agricultural by-products or special fibers mixed with conventional or recycled paper pulp. This innovative option contains 35% less wood fibers and is still recyclable in the normal paper stream. By-products from the production process are also used in biogas plants to help generate power, heat, and gas.
Consumer insights
Regulators aren’t the only force pushing for more sustainable practices. Consumers too, place great importance on sustainability, and will make purchasing decisions based on aspects such as whether pharmaceutical and supplement packaging is recyclable and production sustainable.
* Representative survey of 1,008 people in Germany aged 18+, executed by Pharma Deutschland e.V. (former Bundesverband der Arzneimittel-Hersteller e.V.) https://www.pharmadeutschland.de/en/
