Key-Pak sees surge in paperboard blister pack demand as India cracks down on single-use plastic

01 Jul 2021 --- US-based Keystone Folding Box is reporting a surge in demand for its line of child-resistant, paperboard-based blister packs from pharmaceutical companies in India. 

The sales spike for its Key-Pak portfolio comes amid two parallel events: New environmental sustainability legislation in India and increased demand for child-resistant (CR) pharma packaging in the US – to whom India supplies some 40 percent of packaged over-the-counter (OTC) and prescription drugs.

Speaking to PackagingInsights, Ward Smith, director of marketing and business development at Keystone, says that while the packs still contain plastic, the design offers the pharma industry an easy solution to drastically reduce plastic content. 

“The difficulty in designing these packs was engineering the CR features in a manner in which they were also functionally simple for patients to access the medication easily,” says Smith.

“While it’s a must that children are not able to access medicines, it must also be easy for seniors and those with physical limitations to open the packages.”

The Key-Pak and Ecoslide-RX 
The Key-Pak blister card portfolio is designed to cater to clinical trials, compliance dosing to physicians’ samples and full-scale retail applications, says the company.

Comprising up to 75 percent less plastic than bottles or amber vials, Key-Pak also boasts the highest-possible child-resistance rating, F=1 . 

Included in the range is the Ecoslide Series of blister packs, featuring a push-button safety mechanism that provides CR features. The solutions contain a fraction of disposable plastic compared to peel/push blisters or plastic bottles, says Smith. 

The Key-Pak offers a CR feature for each dose on a wallet card. In contrast, Ecoslide-RX incorporates a re-closable safety feature whereby patients press a button to disengage the CR safety mechanism, he continues. 

“The blister itself is made from traditional plastics. However, when marrying the blister to either the Key-Pak or Ecoslide-RX, the overall size of the blister design can be smaller, minimizing the amount of plastic required. The packs in which the blisters are housed, of course, are predominantly paperboard.”The Ecoslide-RX with re-closable safety feature. 

India’s single-use plastic ban 
Earlier this year, India’s federal government issued a proposal to phase out single-use plastics from many products by 2022. As of July 2022, the ban will outlaw plastic commodities, including plates, cups, glasses, cutlery, straws, trays, stirrers and wrapping films around sweet boxes. 

Non-food contact items include wrapping or packaging films around invitation cards and cigarette packets and plastic/PVC banners less than 100 microns thick.

While the drafted resolution does not impact the pharmaceutical sector directly, a shift toward more eco-friendly pharma packaging is expected, says Key-Pak. 

Indian pharma manufacturers and packagers are consequently looking to get ahead of the environmental sustainability curve. 

Blister pack innovation 
The surge in demand for sustainable blister packs comes amid a wave of innovations seeking to improve standards in pharma packaging. Recently, Amcor launched customer trials for a new mono-material, recyclable polyethylene blister pack in what it claims is a “breakthrough” for pharma packaging. 

Branded AmSky, the packs eliminate polyvinyl chloride, which makes recycling difficult due to its chlorine content. 

Meanwhile, UK-based TerraCycle began partnering with pharma companies to launch a blister pack recycling program in what it claims is a UK first. The “Little Packs Big Impact” initiative is designed to make the preformed plastic packaging used to carry solid drugs more conveniently recyclable at the consumer level.

By Louis Gore-Langton