Why parenteral packaging is more challenging than ever

Parenteral products place high demands on packaging processes. Whether filled into vials, syringes, cartridges, or autoinjectors, these injectable drugs must be handled with extraordinary care to maintain their integrity. At the same time, packaging lines need to respond to shifting market trends and evolving regulations. This includes managing a growing diversity of container variants, more frequent product changeovers, and increasing requirements of documentation and inspection.

As a result, even standard packaging tasks are becoming ever more complex. Addressing these challenges calls for flexible, scalable solutions that can process sensitive products reliably while ensuring consistent quality and full compliance. Only with the right balance of precision, adaptability, process reliability, and productivity can manufacturers keep pace with rising expectations. This makes packaging not just a final step, but a strategic factor in the success of parenteral therapies.

With the rise of self-administered therapies and personalized treatments, medical pens and autoinjectors are becoming increasingly important in the delivery of injectable drugs. Their convenience, safety, and ease of use make them a preferred option for both patients and healthcare providers.

Yet packaging these complex devices presents a number of challenges. Their sensitive mechanisms call for careful handling to prevent damage or accidental activation. In addition, packaging solutions must reliably meet regulatory requirements such as serialization and tamper evidence specifications. This becomes even more demanding when factoring in format variability and the inclusion of accessories, e.g., needles, instructions, or safety caps, which necessitate highly adaptable and ro-bust processes to ensure consistent performance.

Glass remains the preferred material for the primary packaging of parenteral products. It has various properties that are key for the integrity of medication, such as chemical inertness, heat resistance, and sterilizability, as well as optimum barrier properties.

Glass is therefore used for almost every parenteral packaging solution, be it vials, syringes in injectors, or cartridges in medical pens. But handling glass containers calls for extraordinary precision. Manufacturers must ensure gentle product handling, secure fixation of the product, and minimized glass-to-glass contact to prevent breakage along the logistics chain.

Traceability in parenteral packaging is about more than protection against counterfeits. It plays a key role in meeting the rising demands of pharmaceutical logistics – from regulatory compliance to patient safety. This includes full visibility along the supply chain and reliable tracking of process data like storage temperatures. Digital solutions support this by capturing, storing, and verifying essential data – ensuring product quality, enabling transparency, and helping manufacturers maintain control at every stage.

The packaging of parenteral products and required supplements such as needles, pads, and booklets presents new challenges – but the right machinery enables manufacturers to handle them ef-fortlessly. From flexible blister solutions to high-precision cartoning systems, Uhlmann offers a range of technologies designed to meet the specific demands of parenteral packaging.