WHY DO PHARMACEUTICALS NEED ALUMINIUM PACKAGING?
hmwadeseo > 08-10-2023, 07:46 AM
The medical industry is a crucial one and can be a risky venture. The reason is the kind of products and services it provides to the patients. The pharmaceutical side of the industry is the most active industry and has an availability of vast markets both in the Eastern and Western world. With regulatory bodies controlling the products and keeping them safe for users, pharmaceutical products need to be free of defects.
In general, the “defect” shows up in pharmaceutical products as contaminants, short shelf life, spoiled goods, tampered packaging etc. A packaging defect, however, is the biggest concern. Because packaging of pharmaceutical products has to be efficient enough to keep the medicines away from any contact with environmental factors and human touch. Since most pharmaceutical products are volatile or effervescent to environmental factors like heat, moisture and microorganisms, they need A-grade containment.
Aluminium vs. Other Materials
In earlier days, there has been a lot of use of paper in the packaging of medicines and pills. But the permeable characteristic of paper makes it a worse containment material than common PVC. Blister packs have long been lidded using paper and polymer layers but even with the PVC layer, the material fails to increase shelf-life or keep moisture from seeping in. Also, paper and PVC have a higher stretching point which makes it difficult to remove the pill, crushing it in the process. This, in the case of capsules, is a bad choice, given its weak structure. So, when it comes to containment, metallic foils for blisters can always be relied on. And since steel cannot be used with materials that are ingestible, only aluminium passes as a non-reactive metal for pharmaceutical packaging.