Packaging material use for pharmaceutical products is not only for preventing them but also to indicate complete detail about the product. Unlike other products, there are certain norms and regulations for packaging and packing material use in pharmaceutical preparations.
Three types of packaging used to pack medicines and pharmaceutical products. These prevent products from destruction, prevent potency loss or degradation etc.
- Primary Packaging
- Secondary Packaging
- Tertiary Packaging
Primary Packaging: Examples: Blister, Strip, Alu-Alu, pet bottles etc.
Primary packaging is most important part of pharmaceutical material packaging. Packaging used should be neutral and doesn’t show any reaction or interaction with active ingredients or other ingredients of dosage form.
For Tablets/Capsules, most commonly used primary packaging are strip, blister or alu-alu. These are made up of substances which are non reactive to medicines like PVC, aluminium etc.
For Liquid dosage forms, bottles of Glass or High quality Plastic is used to fill and carry. Bottle’s of plastic material is always of safety concern. Many pharmaceutical ingredients react with plastic and can make dangerous chemical reactions which could create seriously damage to our health. Glass is neutral and non reactive substance but main problem with glass is transportation problem. It breaks during transportation and have to handle carefully. Glass Containers used are:
- Type I-Borosilicate glass
- Type II-Treated soda-lime glass
- Type III- Regular soda lime glass
- Type IV- General Purpose soda lime glass
Plastic used are:
- Polyethylene (PE)
- Polypropylene (PP)
- Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC)
- Polystyrene
- Nylon (polyamide)
- Polycarbonate
- Acrylic multipolymers (Nitrile Polymers)
- Polyethylene terepthalate (PET)
Primary packaging should have many qualities to prevent dosage form during its self life. It should be air locked and should prevent dosage form from any type of contamination
Secondary Packaging: Examples: Cartoons, Labels, Boxes etc.
After primary packaging, there is need of one another layer of packaging, we call it secondary packaging. It is printed material which contains all information about active or inactive ingredient used in preparation, warning if any, schedule, manufacturer’s name and address, marketing company details, dosage form etc. It is used for two purposed : One for providing information about product and second is to give attractiveness and Brand image to it. The mostly used packing material is of paper.
Tertiary Packaging: Examples: Containers, Barrels etc.
Tertiary packaging is to pack products for transportation, handling and shipping purpose. tertiary packaging may contain single product or two or more products depend at many factors. Mainly used tertiary packing material is cardboard or pasteboard.
Check List of Packaging Material Supplier in India here
Hope above information is useful to you…
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