LET’S TALK INNOVATIONS IN PHARMACEUTICAL PACKAGING
- Koby De Guzman
- Nov 24, 2020
- 5 min read
Expert Interview: Andrew Wong from Jones Healthcare Group
As we know, new innovations in every industry are constantly on the rise and the pharmaceutical industry is no exception. To get a deeper look into the industry’s new technological packaging innovations, we interviewed an expert in the field, Andrew Wong. Let’s get into it!
Who is Andrew Wong?
Andrew Wong is the Manager of Market Development for the Innovations Solutions Group (ISG) division at Jones Health Care Group. Their goal is to identify and develop future facing ideas and bring them as close to commercialization as possible, until a point in time where they can pass these ideas off to existing business units or create a new business unit entirely. As Manager of Market Development, Andrew is responsible for evaluating the market potential for ISG's product pipeline, identifying focus areas, and creating a path to market.
About Jones Health Care Group
Jones Health Care Group is a world-class provider of advanced packaging and medication dispensing solutions. With roots firmly established in healthcare, Jones has been a long-time, trusted partner for some of the most recognized global pharmaceutical brands and the largest pharmacy groups, independent pharmacies, hospitals and long-term care facilities across the world. From packaging that protects and informs, to new platforms that improve consumer outcomes – they are invested in advancing wellness.
Watch Jones Healthcare Group's quick introduction video here.
The Growing Need for Accessibility
Along with strict barrier properties, many pharmaceuticals require child resistant features, which makes them difficult to open for children. Andrew elaborates that “oftentimes, this makes it difficult for adults, particularly senior citizens.” In order to accommodate for these needs, Child Resistance (CR) Certification also includes accessibility requirements. In order to be CR certified, the package must be tested to ensure that children can’t open it, while also ensuring that senior citizens can. Andrew also briefly mentions ScripTalk by En-Vision, which is a system designed to help pharmacists meet the needs of the blind and visually impaired. These include “talking” labels, prescription readers, large print labels, and Braille labels as well.
New Technologies On the Rise
Pharma serialization is a new technology on the rise that requires the printing of individual codes on each package, and also correlating those codes to a database for supply chain tracking. It sounds simple in theory, but in practice it can be very complex and can be quite capital intensive. As a mandated regulation in the US and EU, and likely other jurisdictions in the near future, there is no escaping the need to invest in technologies that can facilitate a serialized workflow. The rise of digital printing has been talked about for a while, but certainly that trend will continue. In the interview, Andrew mentions an emerging new technology:
“If we were to take a wild stab in the dark at emerging tech, what I'm really excited to see play out is Jurata's thin film technology. Their films have the potential to drastically change how vaccines are packaged and transported. This would increase "accessibility" of vaccines (not in the open and closed sense, but the ability to obtain sense), in a very meaningful way.”
Pharmaceutical Packaging Design Regulations
All of Canada’s regulations are freely accessible online. However, these documents contain multiple sections and subsections that can make it difficult to understand. Health Canada provides guidance documents for most of their regulations which makes this process easier. For drug packaging, it is understanding which regulations that drug falls under. Andrew gives us the following example: “An OTC (over the counter) product would have different requirements than an Rx (prescription) product. Once you identify which regulations to follow you're then identifying what labelling (product info) is required, what barrier properties are required, sterility requirements, and accessibility requirements (e.g. CR).”
How does the Innovation Lab teams manage to figure out new innovations, such as the CpaX NFC Connected Packaging, despite there being several strict guidelines to follow for pharmaceutical packaging?
“Regulations can be restrictive but I also see them as opportunities,” Andrew emphasizes. For example, serialization. As a mandatory requirement, there is a clear path to revenue for packaging manufacturers to invest in technology that can facilitate serialization. Now, how can something like an NFC tag that also contains an individual ID code tie into serialization? Having a good understanding of existing and upcoming regulations allows companies to identify opportunities for these technologies and understand where they can and cannot work. As an example, Andrew explains, “We would likely never put an NFC tag in a place that touches medication directly, because it would require our pharmaceutical clients to completely retest and recertify their packaging designs for safety. But most of the regulations that would impact NFC relate more to the digital experience that is launched by the NFC rather than the NFC itself. Privacy guidelines is one. Medical device regulations is another. Depending on what the NFC is designed to do, it may change that product packaging to be classified as a ‘Medical Device’.” None of what Andrew mentioned are impenetrable barriers, but they do slow down execution and add complexity to the process.
Innovative Ideas Cut Due to Pharmaceutical Packaging Regulations
Andrew explains their exciting ideas about a blister pack with printed electronics, connected to a cellular transmitter, which can monitor when a patient takes their medication. There is a backend system that tracks this data, and sends reminders and notifications accordingly. What they are not doing however, is recording any specific information about which drug is inside the package. The reason is because this would classify the package as a medical device, and it would severely impact their ability to develop and test this product. Andrew further explains, “Currently we are in the pilot stages for this product (completed pilots in Europe and Canada, currently live patient trials in the US). If a pharmaceutical manufacturer comes to us and wishes to pursue medical device certification, then of course we would be open to the idea. But it’s not a need for us at the moment, so we have avoided this so far.” In Cannabis, Jones has decided not to pursue CR packaging for different reasons, but an interesting fact is that even if they decided to do so, it would be prohibitively difficult to complete CR testing with the current COVID pandemic. CR testing requires testing with children and seniors in a controlled monitored setting.
What do you think is the most rewarding part of your position at Jones Health Care Group?
“They give me a lot of freedom, which is a big sign of trust from senior leadership,” says Andrew. “Also, the projects we are working on, I believe, have the potential to make a meaningful impact in patient safety and wellbeing, so that feels good. And coming up with new ways to use this tech we are developing is super fun.”
The Future of Pharmaceutical Packaging
Traditional packaging is all about the 3Ps (Protect, Preserve, Promote). Packaging of the future will do more. Andrew states that Jones is expecting electronic connected packaging's future ability to predict, perceive, etc. However, active packaging is also very important, with its ability to react to environmental changes without any electronics at all. Sustainability will be increasingly important moving forward as well.
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