Northern pharma packaging industry in the pink of health

Vijay C Roy

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 22

The pharmaceutical packaging industry in North is in good health. Eyeing a 15-20 per cent growth this fiscal, its players are all set to expand and upgrade their existing plants in the region.   

Targeting the facilities in North, Mumbai-based Schott Kaisha, manufacturer of small tubular glass parenteral packaging, including ampoules, vials, cartridges and sterile prefillable glass syringes, is scouting for land in Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh to set up a unit. 

Similarly, Baddi Foils (P) Ltd, having units in Baddi and nearby areas and in Sikkim, is set to modernise its Himachal units. It manufactures products such as aluminium pharma foils, aluminium blister foils and flexible laminates.  Besides, there are many units which are modernising to keep themselves abreast of technological innovations in the pharma sector.

Rishad Dadachanji, Director, Schott Kaisha, said the Indian packaging industry is growing at a fast pace and the company has plans to address the demands and challenges of its customers. "We are planning to set up a plant in Himachal Pradesh. Besides, the company will open a manufacturing unit in Umarsadi, Gujarat. We will upgrade plants in Daman and Jambusar (Gujarat) side by side. With all this, the firm's capital expenditure will see a hike of Rs 500 crore by 2020," he said.

Himachal Pradesh is one of the prominent hubs of pharmaceutical units followed by Uttarakhand, Punjab and Haryana. The manufacturers are working together with the partners to deliver better products and integrated lines of solutions. "Buoyed by the demand, the industry is likely to witness a double-digit growth in the next fiscal year. To cater to the increasing demand, we are also expanding and modernising our units in Himachal Pradesh," Baddi Foils (P) Ltd Director Sanjay Khurana said.

Generally, the pharmaceutical packagings are of three types — primary, secondary and tertiary. The primary packaging comprises foils, glass bottles, syringes, vials, cartridges or the materials which are in a direct contact with the drugs. There are 20 units in Himachal Pradesh catering to such packaging.

The secondary packaging consists of printed mono-cartons (small boxes) in which strips or bottle of a particular drugs are packed. There are 35 units in the Baddi -Barotiwala-Nalagarh belt. The units cater to the pharmaceutical sector as well as FMCG sector.

The third type is tertiary packaging units which comprise manufacturer of large cardboard boxes which are used for transporting medicines. The tertiary packaging units also cater to the pharmaceutical and FMCG sectors.