Printing for the Pharmaceutical Market

Printing for pharma companies is a very different animal than typical package printing.

Ensuring print integrity

Another area that will slow down your process is maintaining print integrity. "The most important thing that we see is consistency of print integrity—no missing copy, no obscured letters, and no filled in letters," says Johnson. "Which is why we've gone so far as to put in 100 percent vision systems to scan copy." He says that although these systems can slow the process down, they guarantee the quality of the print.

The graphics employed on the packaging also pose a challenge. "Even the non-pharma stuff gets complex in what they're looking for to sell it in the marketplace," says Johnson. "But graphics is where the design aspect will determine whether it can be run flexographically, that will determine backside printing, or the types of coatings."

These will impact the printer in terms of costs, because these issues often mandate more print stations. "It adds up to more print stations being necessary to do pharma work," he says. "Because if you're printing a big solid black, you may have to print two plates of it—one to keep the real tiny highlights and another one for the graphics side of it." Many times, adding security features will also require an additional print station. So, to an untrained eye, a package may look like a three-color print job. "But then you really get into the guts of it, and it may have two different coatings," Johnson continues. "It may have one for security, and it may have two different black plates."

All these variations will impact how printers integrate security features. Scheer contends that the lack of standardization in packaging makes it tougher to implement certain things, and slows the process down versus, for example, printing security features onto credit cards, which are all a standard size. "[There is a] much wider range of packaging elements and form types in the pharmaceutical market and infinite combinations when you think about all the different types of packaging elements and how they all fit together," he says.

Again with the shorter runs

An important trend in pharmaceutical packaging, according to Johnson, is that pharmaceutical brands are printing much smaller jobs, which means package printers must be able to accommodate these shorter runs. The reason isn't the usual "just-in-time" requirement. Rather, it's the regulation. "It's derived from the FDA's constant changing and adding requirements," he says. Basically, he asserts, as soon as you go to press, there are changes when you come back to the job. "And then throw in security features," he continues. "[These] are only good for six to nine months and then they want to change them."

Speaking of security, it's a reality in the pharmaceutical market. "I think if you want to be credible within the pharmaceutical industry as a full service printer, you need to be able to deliver security products," says Scheer. He states delivering security to customers creates differentiation for printers and adds tremendous value for their customers. But, to do so, printers must have the the other systems in place, such as 24/7 CCTV monitoring, the background checks, etc. "I don't think you can deliver security products unless you have these systems in place, credibly." pP

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