New capabilities are being added to meet the growing need for complex packaging solutions.

In an interview with Contract Pharma, Bernd Stauss, Senior Vice President of Production and Engineering for Vetter Pharma, indicted that there is growing demand for complex packaging solutions due to the increasing number of complex compounds being developed as drug candidates, particularly biomolecules. The need for these advanced drugs is, in turn, driven by the aging of the global population combined with a growing preference for self-administration in the home. Advances in technology are enabling the development of packaging solutions that can meet these market demands. 

Contract packaging service providers are experiencing increasing demand for their services as a result, according to Strauss. The growing complexity of packaging solutions is leading biopharmaceutical companies to rely on third-party service providers with the specialized technical capabilities needed to assemble and package the various devices that are in demand today. Sponsor firms are also looking for CDMO partners that can provide integrated solutions across the entire packaging spectrum, from device manufacture to aseptic filling, visual inspection, cartoning, printing, labeling and serialization.

Vetter is responding to this need for one-stop-shop offerings from development to packaging and serialization with a 32,000-square-foot expansion of its secondary packaging facility in Ravensburg, Germany that will be completed within the next three years. The project includes fully-automated packaging lines, space for manual and semi-automated packaging processes, and assembly equipment for a wide variety of formats.