Demand for Age-Appropriate Packaging on the Rise

In Germany alone, patients over the age of 80 take 4 to 5 different medicines every day. However, opening and resealing their pharmaceutical packaging and correctly dosing the medicine often presents challenges for many patients with age-related vision impairments or muscle weakness. But the development of pharmaceutical packaging for seniors is moving forward, and the industry has recognized the need for age-appropriate packaging. The discussion about generic drugs and increasing online trade have contributed to this.

Better legibility of the instructions for use through appropriate printing, easy-to-use closures and packaging with intelligent or smart technologies are now more common in pharmaceutical packaging. Manufacturers offer different solutions. For example, the packaging industry is also focusing on digitization and automation to enable individual treatments with personalized medicine. Filling and packaging even the smallest batch sizes requires a high degree of flexibility, which is made possible by automated workflows.

Blister machines are increasingly being used to fill and package small quantities of individual tablet mixtures in the required dose and assign them to an individual data set. Here, the drug is tailor-made for the patient and packaged airtight in a hygienic string of pouches. The labeling and systematic filing of the individual weekly doses prevents mix-ups. In addition to making work easier for nurses, doctors, and pharmacists, packaging materials are also saved and packaging waste reduced.

Packaging 360