With the increasing of aging and the improvement of people's consumption level, the demand of drug market shows a growing trend. In 2021, the market size of the global pharmaceutical packaging industry will reach 100 billion dollars, and the pharmaceutical packaging industry in China will exceed 100 billion yuan.

Pharmaceutical packaging refers to a processing process that uses appropriate materials or containers and packaging technology to divide (fill) and package semi-finished products or finished products of pharmaceutical preparations to provide quality assurance, identification trademarks and instructions for pharmaceuticals.

In addition to the strong development of medical supplies, the packaging of medical supplies is also developing rapidly. According to the survey of the American market research company Freedonia, the demand for drug blister packaging will reach 4.4 billion dollars in 2021.

Development trends of drug packaging

Drug is a special commodity, and its efficacy and quality are directly related to human health and safety. The packaging materials used can not only ensure the efficacy, but also ensure the reliability and convenience of drug use.

It is an industry with increasingly strict quality requirements, which is expected to show several trends in the future:

Green: develop new degradable packaging materials.

Environmental regulation: change the gas state in the package, and ensure the quality of the packaged products for a long time. For example, there are packages sealed with desiccants (oxygen absorbents) to extend the shelf life of drugs.

Flexible packaging: Thermoforming extruded blister packaging with controllable dosage will replace the packaging of bulk or bottled drugs.

High barrier: good barrier materials are used to prevent gas, water vapor, smell, light, etc. from entering the package to ensure the effectiveness of drugs. High barrier packaging has been widely used in Europe and Japan.

Sterility: in a sterile environment, it is a packaging method to sterilize packaged drugs by using instantaneous ultra-high temperature sterilization technology. Composite materials are often used for packaging through different forms of extrusion and composite molding.

In terms of performance

Drugs are special commodities. The sealing of packaging is very important to protect drugs from moisture, ensure the quality and efficacy of drugs, and also affect the storage period of drugs.

Moisture is one of the common reasons for unqualified drugs, which is generally caused by lax packaging of drugs and moisture during storage and circulation. The blister packaging of drugs is one of the most important packaging methods of drugs at present because of its good sealing performance and convenient use and carrying.

The materials used for blister packaging are mainly PTP medical aluminum foil and plastic hard sheet. Plastic hard sheet materials are usually polyvinyl chloride (PVC), polyvinylidene chloride (PVDC) or composite materials.

Polyvinylidene chloride film (PVDC) is a kind of film with the best barrier performance. It has barrier performance and chemical stability against oxygen, water vapor, carbon monoxide and organic compounds. Among many polymer drug packaging materials, only PVDC has high barrier performance to water vapor and oxygen, and has been widely used in drug packaging.

In the high barrier medical packaging, it is usually used as a coating material. The 2-4m PVDC composite film is coated on PP, CPE, PET films, which can play a role in moisture resistance, taste protection, moisture resistance, etc. PVDC is the most common coating in blister packaging, which can reduce the permeability and moisture permeability of PVC blister packaging by 5-10 times. PVDC coated composite film for medicine is used to make high-temperature cooking sterilization bags and preservative bags in China.

PVDC is one of the four main varieties in the plastic composite film bag packaging of granules, powders, powders, capsules, etc. of traditional Chinese medicine.

In addition, PVDC also has the properties of acid resistance, alkali resistance, oil resistance and drug resistance. It can be used under high humidity conditions, and is convenient for transportation and storage.

At present, PVDC coating film has been widely used in the packaging of meat products, cakes, tea and solid drinks, playing a role in preventing water loss, blocking gas, maintaining fragrance, anti-corrosion, fresh-keeping, etc.