Pharma industry needs to digitise, recycle, and reuse to achieve circularity

The Pack.Nxt conference at The Lalit Mumbai on 16 December brought together packaging pioneers and regulatory experts for a deep dive into the urgent theme of the circular economy in packaging. 

For the highly regulated pharmaceutical sector, the circular economy must be achieved without compromising product integrity or increasing costs. Subhrajit Bhowmik, associate director of packaging development and procurement at Cipla Health, shared real-world design interventions. Cipla, a pharmaceutical company, demonstrated a focus on material efficiency by successfully reducing packaging thickness (eg: moving from 250 to 200 microns) to achieve a 20% waste reduction.
Furthermore, addressing the challenge of incorporating recycled materials, Bhowmik detailed an innovative reformulation process to include post-consumer recycled (PCR) polymer by utilising an IV (intrinsic viscosity) enhancer. This technological solution maintains the high quality and performance required for primary pharmaceutical packaging, proving that sustainability and high standards can co-exist.

The adoption of smart packaging is shifting from a desirable feature to a competitive necessity in the healthcare sector. Panellists noted that this shift is primarily driven by the critical need for track-and-trace, anti-counterfeiting, and enhanced supply chain visibility. The key innovations for pharma and wellness products include: Digital Patient Information: Kaustubh Kulkarni, section head of packaging development, Wockhardt, shared the company’s digitalisation drive, replacing bulky printed leaflets with a QR code on the carton, which provides the patient with the entire package insert and essential product information. This not only reduces paper consumption but also streamlines packaging operations. An earlier example from the panel also cited a medicine pack (MScom) that uses a QR code to deliver usage, side effects, and positive information to the consumer. Similarly, panellists alluded to advanced indicators, which included innovations like specialised colour-changing paints/labels, which were noted as being used in pharmaceutical products to indicate temperature or moisture fluctuations, adding an essential layer of safety.

The conference highlighted a practical 4R strategy (reduce, reuse, recycle, and refuse/recover) being employed by pharmaceutical companies to make sustainability financially viable. 

Reduce: Utilising the digital drive to replace printed paper leaflets with QR codes on the carton significantly cuts down on paper waste and operational manpower required for packing; Reuse: An innovation in primary packaging involved the development of a reusable insulin pen, where the 3ml insulin cartridge is the only disposable component, reducing overall plastic and device consumption; Replace: Companies are replacing plastic components, such as secondary packaging trays for injectables, with cardboard trays by re-engineering the mono-carton with integrated slots. This not only reduces plastic use but also provides cost efficiencies.

The final regulatory session stressed that for pharma and food, the entire product journey—"from cradle to grave"—is subject to extreme scrutiny. Omprakash S Sadhwani, former joint commissioner and drugs controller, Food and Drug Administration, underscored the importance of packaging in ensuring patient safety. The regulatory takeaways for the sector included: Anti-counterfeiting: Packaging must actively incorporate features to protect the public from counterfeit products; Supply chain diligence: Extreme caution is required in the transportation and storage of all materials, from raw components to finished goods, to prevent contamination risks (such as the accident involving diethylene glycol from improperly reused containers); Compliance burden: The complexity and mandatory nature of regulations like EPR (Extended Producer Responsibility) and FSSAI's tightening mandate for all food-contact surfaces mean that the burden of compliance is increasingly being placed squarely on the manufacturer/user.

The collective message was clear: for the pharmaceutical industry, the circular economy is not an option but a rapidly evolving necessity driven by both environmental responsibility and non-negotiable patient safety standards.