Temperature-Controlled Packaging for Pharmaceutical Market

The global temperature-controlled packaging for pharmaceutical market is rapidly growing due to growth in the pharmaceutical industry supplementing sales to the significant extent and adoption of smarter cold chain technology. However, the market's growth is hampered by rising raw material costs. Sustainability and pharmaceutical temperature control packaging are some of the opportunities to grow the global temperature-controlled packaging for pharmaceutical market.

The growing demand for packaging in the pharmaceutical industry has aided the growth of temperature-controlled packaging for the pharmaceutical market. Temperature-controlled packaging for pharmaceuticals is designed to maintain the proper temperature of sensitive products. Such packaging solutions are primarily used in the healthcare industry for the transportation and storage of temperature-sensitive products in a controlled temperature environment.

A major focus area of many national and international organizations, such as the World Health Organization (WHO), is the reduction of vaccine wastage. As a part of this, several programs are organized to monitor vaccine wastage at the country level. The objectives of such programs are proper packaging, handling, and transportation of vaccines. Such consciousness triggers the demand for temperature-controlled packaging for pharmaceuticals in the healthcare sector. The growth in medical tourism across the globe is another major reason for the pharmaceutical industry's growth. In Asia-Pacific, countries such as Thailand are recognized as one of the leading destinations in the world for their growing number of well-equipped hospitals with low cost and high-quality treatment facilities and a wide range of services. The Thai government announced a ten-year strategic plan to be implemented from 2016-to 2025 to turn Thailand into a hub for wellness, medical services, academics, and products. The growth of the pharmaceutical industry is also attributed to the rising import and export of pharmaceutical products across the globe, and the rising number of outsourced clinical trials to Asian countries, especially in China, South Korea, Taiwan, and others.

Drugs that are used in the treatment of cancer, or cold chain drugs such as insulin, require constant temperature control. According to the US Food and Drug Administration, refrigerated biologics must be stored and transported within 2°C–8°C unless the medicine is deemed stable at other temperature ranges. Hence, the handling and transportation of these specific drugs are driving the demand for temperature-controlled packaging for pharmaceutical solutions. Due to COVID-19, there has been a growth in biopharmaceuticals. Biopharmaceuticals include enzymes, vaccines, cell therapies, and gene therapies. These products are vulnerable to humidity and heat and must be stored at low temperatures for storage and shipping. A rise in demand for the COVID-19 vaccine, gene therapies; and increasing demand for vaccine shipments worldwide are expected to drive the growth of the global temperature-controlled packaging for pharmaceutical market over the forecast period.

Governments play a vital role in the growth of pharmaceutical market in a region. Governments are largely involved in policies that facilitate investments in their respective countries. They try to support the number of public-private collaborations. For example, in the case of public-private collaboration in Asia-Pacific, Singapore has been a leading country in biomedical sciences manufacturing and R&D-related activities. Hence, it provides abundant opportunities for private enterprises to partner with the public sector research institutes, clinical research units in hospitals, and international research organizations.

Various governments have various incentive schemes to attract the companies. This creates opportunities to major companies to invest and expand their presence across the regions. One of the incentive schemes of Singapore is the Research Incentive Scheme for Companies (RISC), which supports the projects of science and technology through the development of research and technological capabilities, and the Competitive Research Programme (CPR), which is a funding scheme for identifying new research areas. Due to support from the government, several pharmaceutical companies have led in terms of leveraging the public-private collaboration by making financial commitments toward establishing and growing their centers of excellence for R&D. For example, in April-2018, the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity recently approved expanding a new research park in North Chicago. The research park will assist various universities in moving their science and intellectual property into the marketplace to improve human health, including the health of local populations. This collaboration increases the research capability in the country. As a result, various countries' government initiatives are carried out to boost the pharmaceutical industry. Such support from the government is a huge opportunity for the growth of the temperature-controlled packaging for pharmaceutical market.

In recent years, the cost of temperature-controlled packaging insulating material has risen. Polystyrene is the primary raw material used as an insulating material in temperature-controlled packaging solutions. The unstable prices of polystyrene, due to the increased gap between demand and supply, have surged its price, which is expected to continue during the forecast period. Thus, an increase in such raw material costs would raise the manufacturing and distribution cost, leading to high costs for pharmaceutical packaging products. These factors can hamper the growth of the global temperature-controlled packaging for pharmaceutical market during the forecast period. In addition, high investment and maintenance costs, and lack of awareness about the benefits of packaging can hamper the growth of the global temperature-controlled packaging for pharmaceutical market during the forecast period.