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The Future of the Pharmaceutical Packaging Industry - Emerging Economies Poised to Capitalize on Increasing Demand

21 May 2010 • by Natalie Aster

GBI Research’s new report “The Future of the Pharmaceutical Packaging Industry - Emerging Economies Poised to Capitalize on Increasing Demand” provides insights on the global pharmaceutical packaging market, with coverage of the market landscape, key market trends, market drivers and restraints. The report provides market forecasts for the global pharmaceutical packaging industry until 2015. The geographical distribution of pharmaceutical packaging manufacturers across key geographies such as, the US, the top five countries in the European region, Japan and BRIC countries are also provided. Key cost and developmental issues are also addressed. The report provides an in-depth analysis of the competitive landscape, including the benchmarking of top companies, key trends on mergers and acquisitions, and licensing agreements involving pharmaceutical packaging.

Global Pharmaceutical Packaging Industry Is Set To Ride the Growth Bandwagon with Rapid Expansion in the Pharmaceutical Industry Globally

The global pharmaceutical packaging market was valued at $42 billion in 2008. The market is forecast to grow at a CAGR of 6.9% between 2008 and 2015, reaching a value of $68 billion by 2015. The global pharmaceutical industry is currently witnessing rapid expansion with advances in manufacturing processes, technology innovation and integration, which is the main driving force behind the growth of pharmaceutical packaging industry, globally. The growth is likely to be high in emerging economies of India and China, primarily on account of increasing generics and contract manufacturing activities in these countries.

Pharmaceutical Packaging Industry Will Overcome Challenges to Record High Growth Rates In The Future

The fastest growth in pharmaceutical packaging market is expected from prefillable syringes and parenteral vials, which will continue to expand as advances in biotechnology result in the introduction of new therapies that must be injected. The increasing demand for biologics will boost the demand for innovative product packaging solutions in the global pharmaceutical packaging market. Also, with more than $120 billion worth of drugs going off-patent in the next five years, generic drug manufacturers will emerge as a major segment driving demand for pharmaceutical packaging.

All these factors, coupled with the growing pharmaceutical industry will continue to drive demand for packaging. However, the packaging industry will have to overcome challenges like availability and price volatility of raw materials and changing health regulations, in order to meet the increasing demand from the growing pharmaceutical industry.

Increasing Demand for Drug Delivery Devices and Blister Packaging Will Boost the Growth of Pharmaceutical Packaging Industry

Plastic bottles emerged as the largest revenue generating segment for the pharmaceutical packaging industry in 2008, recording annual revenues of approximately $8.5 billion. This was closely followed by blister packaging and drug delivery devices which generated revenues of $7.2 billion and $5.9 billion respectively in 2008. Other important segments in the pharmaceutical packaging industry were labels and accessories and other containers.

Market size of drug delivery devices and blister packaging is expected to grow at a faster rate than other segments in the pharmaceutical packaging industry. Increasing demand for improved drug delivery mechanisms and more complex biologic molecules will have to be complimented with better drug delivery devices. Products such as inhalers, nasal sprays, transdermal patches, and oral ingestion have redefined the market, and have become as important as the drug itself. Also, blister packaging will witness growth because of increasing usage of unit dose packaging. Some industry segments, like plastic bottles, will witness an average growth, while others like glass bottles and containers might see a decline in demand as they will be replaced by light weight and cheap plastic products.

Developing Nations are Poised to Take Advantage of Increasing Demand of Pharmaceutical Packaging

The global pharmaceutical packaging market is dominated by the US with a market share of approximately 37% in 2008. This is followed by Western Europe and Asia Pacific with market shares of 33% and 30% respectively. However, this trend is likely to change in the future. Asia Pacific is poised to grow faster than the other two markets. Over the next five years, Asia Pacific is likely to grow at more than 10% while Western Europe and the US will grow at more than 6% and 4% respectively.

Increasing drug manufacturing activities in the emerging nations is driving the demand for packaging in India and China. Emerging countries like India and China have emerged as favorite destinations for packaging companies mainly due to lower wages, skilled and plentiful workforce and increasing availability of state-of-the-art technology in these countries. Also, the demand for pharmaceutical packaging is increasing, especially in the wake of patent expiries wherein these countries will emerge as a hub for generic drug manufacturing.

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