Drug-producing industries are expected to continue to operate at normal or near normal capacities despite the COVID-19 pandemic. And they will continue to provide demand for a full range of packaging products. One segment, plastic and glass pharmaceutical bottles, is forecasted by The Freedonia Group to grow 3.9% annually to $5.8 billion in 2024. Applications in packaging solid oral and liquid medicines, nutritional preparations and dietary supplements will lead gains. Additionally, this product group will continue to derive sizable demand from use as containers for selected topical and inhalation pharmaceuticals, including ophthalmic solutions, nasal sprays and dermatological agents. Medical and legal recreational marijuana use will also boost growth for plastic and glass jars as well as specialty plastic bottles. Plastic bottles are expected to account for 95% of value demand in 2024, as they continue to capture market share from glass bottles based on cost, processing and intrinsic advantages. However, they will continue to lose market share to blister packs. Glass bottles are forecast to experience a gradual erosion in both value and volume demand as plastic bottles, blister packaging and other competitive containers are favored.
Source: The Freedonia Group
U.S. PHARMACEUTICAL PACKAGING MARKET
Key Trends Through 2024
- Introductions of new biologicals and biosimilars will cause parenteral containers to have the fastest growth.
- Unit dose blister packaging will experience fast growth due to its improvements to patient drug adherence, drug dispensing accuracy, and pharmacy recordkeeping.
- Security-enhanced products will account for the fastest growth in secondary pharmaceutical packaging.
