Abstract: 

From child-resistant and senior-friendly design to counterfeit protection and digital connectivity, pharmaceutical packaging faces growing complexity. In this interview, André Dicks discusses how packaging can balance patient safety, sustainability, and regulatory compliance. André has also contributed his deep industry expertise to PHARMAP 2026 as a speaker in the Pharmaceutical Packaging Innovations session.

1. Pharmaceutical packaging is evolving rapidly beyond traditional protection and compliance functions. How do you see packaging becoming a strategic differentiator for pharmaceutical brands in today’s highly competitive and regulated market?

Pharmaceutical packaging is no longer just about protecting the product and ensuring regulatory compliance. It has become a strategic tool to strengthen patient engagement, supply chain resilience, and brand differentiation.

At Allpack, we see five key trends shaping the future of pharmaceutical packaging:

Patient Centricity – Packaging must improve usability, adherence, and the overall patient experience through intuitive designs, smart labels, and digital patient support.

Supply Chain Agility – Late-stage customization, small batch capabilities, and flexible packaging solutions enable pharmaceutical companies to react faster to market demands and reduce inventory risks.

Digitalization & Connectivity – QR codes, GS1 2D DataMatrix, smart packaging, and digital leaflets transform packaging into a communication channel between manufacturers, healthcare professionals, and patients.

Security & Compliance – Serialization, anti-counterfeiting technologies, and traceability are becoming essential to protect patients and maintain trust in pharmaceutical brands.

Sustainability – Packaging decisions increasingly need to balance patient safety, regulatory requirements, and environmental responsibility while supporting PPWR and ESG objectives.

For Allpack, packaging has evolved from a cost center to a value-driving element of the pharmaceutical supply chain. The companies that successfully combine innovation, compliance, flexibility, and patient focus will create a clear competitive advantage in the years ahead.

2. In your recent presentation, you highlighted the importance of balancing child-resistant (CR) and senior-friendly packaging design. What are the key challenges companies face in achieving both safety and accessibility without compromising user experience?

The challenge is not choosing between child resistance and senior friendliness - it is achieving both simultaneously. Too often, packaging is designed to be difficult to open for everyone, which creates frustration, impacts adherence, and can even compromise patient safety.

At Allpack, we believe that successful CR packaging follows a simple principle:

Child-resistant by design. Adult-accessible by design.

Our Key Design Principle: Difficult for children – easy for seniors

The objective is not to make the package physically hard to open.

Instead: Make opening require intention, not strength.

Children often lack the cognitive ability to understand a specific opening sequence, while seniors may have reduced dexterity, grip strength, or vision.

Therefore, effective CR packaging should: Design barriers that require thinking and sequence, not muscle.

Examples included:

Push-and-turn mechanisms
Sequential opening steps
Hidden release features
Guided opening instructions
Intuitive ergonomic designs for adults

When executed correctly, CR packaging becomes more than a regulatory requirement - it becomes a risk-control measure at the interface between product and patient.

As we often say at Allpack: CR packaging is not just a regulatory checkbox. It is a critical risk-control measure at the interface between product and patient - and in most cases, not using it requires justification; using it is the default expectation. At the same time: Senior-friendly packaging is not just about comfort. It directly impacts safety, usability, adherence, and ultimately treatment outcomes. In modern pharma, difficult-to-open equals design failure; easy-to-open for the right user is a quality feature.

3. Sustainability continues to reshape packaging priorities across the pharmaceutical industry. How realistic is the transition toward monomaterial pharmaceutical packaging, and what technical or regulatory barriers still need to be addressed?

From Allpacks perspective, the transition toward monomaterial pharmaceutical packaging is realistic - but is has to be approached as a qualified packaging platform, not simply as a material change.

The pharmaceutical industry has a very different starting point than consumer packaging. Barrier performance, product protection, machinability, stability, patient safety and regulatory compliance cannot be compromised in the name of sustainability. At the same time, the regulatory direction is very clear: the PPWR is driving packaging toward recyclability, material efficiency and better design for recycling principles.

This is where we see the role of Allpack as a platform provider. We do not see mono-material packaging as a future concept that still needs to be invented. The relevant material combinations, packaging technologies, and processing capabilities already exist. The challenge is to select the right solution for the specific pharmaceutical application and implement it within a validated and compliant packaging process.

For example, moving from conventional multi-layer structures toward PE - or PP-based monomaterial solutions can require a careful engineering of barrier properties, sealing performance, printing, forming and machine compatability. Equally important is demonstrating that new packaging continues to protect the medicinal product throughout its shelf life.

From our perspective, the key question is therefore not "Can we make it monomaterial?" but rather: "Can we make it monomaterial, recycable, manufacturable, and fully compliant - without compromising product quality or patient safety?"

“For us, monomaterial is not a sustainability experiment. It is an engineering and qualification challenge – and that is exactly where a platform provider like Allpack adds value.”

4. As environmental expectations increase, how can pharmaceutical companies balance sustainability goals with the strict performance requirements associated with barrier protection, sterility, and product stability?

The pharmaceutical industry faces a fundamental scientific challenge: sustainability must never compromise patient safety. Packaging is not merely a container; it is an integral part of the drug product system, designed to maintain stability, sterility, efficacy, and shelf life throughout the entire product lifecycle.

From a scientific perspective, sustainability and product protection should not be viewed as conflicting objectives. Instead, they must be optimized simultaneously through a risk-based, data-driven approach. The key question is not whether a packaging material is more sustainable, but whether it can deliver equivalent barrier performance, mechanical integrity, extractables and leachables compliance, and long-term stability under ICH conditions. Recent developments in mono-material structures, high-barrier polyolefins, and advanced coating technologies demonstrate that significant sustainability gains are achievable while maintaining the stringent protection requirements demanded by pharmaceutical products. However, every change must be supported by comprehensive validation, stability studies, and regulatory documentation.

This is where Allpack adds value. As a specialized pharmaceutical packaging platform provider, we bridge the gap between sustainability ambitions and GMP-compliant implementation. Our role is to evaluate packaging concepts not only from an environmental perspective, but also through the lens of product stability, process capability, patient safety, and regulatory compliance.

Leveraging our expertise in blister packaging, bottling, material qualification, and lifecycle management, we help pharmaceutical companies identify the optimal balance between recyclability, carbon footprint reduction, and product protection. Through structured packaging assessments, stability considerations, and industrial-scale validation capabilities, we enable customers to transition toward more sustainable packaging solutions without introducing unnecessary regulatory risk or jeopardizing supply security.

Ultimately, sustainable pharmaceutical packaging is not about replacing materials for the sake of environmental targets. It is about applying scientific evidence to design packaging systems that protect patients, comply with regulatory expectations, and reduce environmental impact simultaneously. At Allpack, we believe sustainability becomes meaningful only when it is validated, compliant, and scalable.

5. Counterfeit medicines remain a growing global concern. How are advanced packaging technologies and anti-counterfeiting features evolving to improve product authentication and patient trust?

Counterfeit medicines remain one of the most significant threats to patient safety and pharmaceutical supply chains worldwide. While serialization has become a regulatory standard in many markets, it is increasingly clear that serialization alone is no longer sufficient. Counterfeiters are becoming more sophisticated, and therefore the industry is moving toward layered authentication strategies that combine overt, covert, and digital security features.

Today, there is a broad range of anti-counterfeiting technologies available on the market, including tamper-evident features, holograms, security inks, RFID, NFC, QR codes, forensic markers, and digital watermarking solutions. The challenge is no longer finding a technology, but selecting the right combination that provides robust protection while remaining scalable, cost-effective, and user-friendly for patients, healthcare professionals, and supply-chain partners.

At Allpack, we believe that the future lies in connecting physical packaging with digital authentication capabilities. For this reason, we have established Digimarc, one of the leading providers of digital watermarking technology. Unlike traditional visible security elements, digital watermarks are embedded directly into the packaging artwork and remain virtually invisible to the human eye while being machine-readable. This creates an additional layer of protection that is extremely difficult to replicate and can be verified using standard mobile devices.

What makes this approach particularly attractive for pharmaceutical companies is that it can be integrated into existing packaging processes with minimal disruption and without compromising packaging design, patient usability, or production efficiency. Furthermore, digital authentication can complement existing serialization and track-and-trace systems, creating a holistic protection strategy that strengthens both product security and patient trust.

At Allpack, we have already established and validated this technology and are well positioned to support pharmaceutical companies in evaluating, implementing, and scaling advanced anti-counterfeiting solutions. Our objective is not only to protect products, but ultimately to protect patients by ensuring that every package can be trusted as authentic throughout the entire supply chain.

6. Smart packaging and connected technologies are gaining momentum across healthcare. Which innovations do you believe will have the greatest impact on pharmaceutical packaging over the next five years?

Over the next five years, I believe pharmaceutical packaging will undergo a fundamental transformation from being a passive protective system to becoming an intelligent, connected interface between manufacturers, healthcare professionals, patients, and supply chains. Three innovations will have the greatest impact:

1. Connected Packaging powered by GS1 2D Codes and Digital Link

The industry is rapidly moving beyond traditional barcodes toward GS1 Digital Link-enabled 2D codes. A single code can support serialization, product authentication, electronic product information (ePI), patient education, sustainability information, and supply chain visibility. This transformation effectively gives every package its own digital identity and creates a direct connection between the physical product and the digital world.

2. Digital Patient Information and Smart Patient Engagement

As regulatory authorities increasingly support electronic product information, pharmaceutical companies will gradually reduce dependency on printed leaflets where regulations permit. Patients and healthcare professionals will gain access to always-current information, videos, instructions, and multilingual content directly through the package. This not only improves patient experience but also supports sustainability objectives by reducing paper consumption.

3. Advanced Authentication and Supply Chain Transparency

Counterfeit protection will evolve from isolated security features toward integrated digital ecosystems. Technologies such as serialization, digital watermarks, intelligent QR codes, and real-time verification will create multiple layers of security while simultaneously providing valuable supply chain insights. The ability to authenticate products instantly and track their journey throughout the distribution network will become increasingly important for patient safety and trust.

At Allpack, we see our role as the implementation partner that bridges innovation and industrial reality. Many pharmaceutical companies understand the strategic value of connected packaging, but the challenge lies in integrating these technologies into GMP-regulated manufacturing environments without increasing complexity or compromising supply security.

We already support customers in the implementation of GS1 DataMatrix and serialization requirements and have established a successful partnership with Digimarc to enable advanced connected packaging and authentication solutions. Through our expertise in packaging development, artwork management, line integration, qualification, and commercial-scale production, we help customers transform innovative concepts into validated, market-ready packaging solutions.

Ultimately, the winners in pharmaceutical packaging will not be those who simply add more technology to a package. They will be those who create meaningful digital ecosystems that improve patient safety, strengthen supply chain visibility, enhance sustainability, and deliver measurable value throughout the product lifecycle. This is precisely where Allpack adds value: translating innovation into compliant, scalable, and patient-centric packaging solutions.

7. Colour consistency and brand accuracy are especially critical in pharmaceutical packaging. How important is colour management in maintaining patient confidence, product recognition, and regulatory compliance across global markets?

Colour management is often underestimated in pharmaceutical packaging, yet it plays a critical role in patient safety, product recognition, brand protection, and regulatory compliance. In a highly regulated industry, colour is far more than a marketing element - it is a quality attribute that contributes to the consistent identification of medicines across different markets, manufacturing sites, and product lifecycles. Research has shown that packaging design and colour significantly influence medication recognition and can help reduce confusion-related errors, particularly among elderly patients.

From a pharmaceutical perspective, consistent colour reproduction supports several critical objectives. It strengthens brand recognition, facilitates rapid product identification by healthcare professionals and patients, and helps maintain confidence that the product received is genuine and unchanged. Even minor colour deviations can raise questions during audits, trigger artwork investigations, or create concerns regarding counterfeit products and supply chain integrity.

At the same time, colour management is becoming increasingly challenging. Global supply chains, multiple print technologies, changing substrates, sustainability-driven material transitions, and distributed manufacturing networks all increase the risk of colour variation. Maintaining consistency therefore requires robust process controls, objective colour measurement systems, and clearly defined acceptance criteria rather than subjective visual assessments.

At Allpack, we recognize that colour management is an important part of future pharmaceutical packaging excellence. While we are still at the beginning of this journey, we have already established a robust and structured colour management system designed to ensure repeatability, transparency, and objective colour control throughout the packaging process. We see significant potential to further improve consistency across products, suppliers, and markets.

The next step is creating greater awareness throughout the pharmaceutical value chain. Many companies still focus heavily on artwork approval and print quality while underestimating the strategic importance of colour consistency as a contributor to patient confidence, brand integrity, and operational efficiency. We believe colour management deserves a place alongside other established quality disciplines such as serialization, inspection systems, and packaging validation.

At Allpack, we are building a robust colour management system that allows us to connect different printing technologies - such as offset and digital - while maintaining consistent colour quality and brand accuracy.

This gives us the flexibility to choose or switch technologies depending on volume, complexity, lead time and sustainability requirements.

Our goal is to continuously optimize the “magic triangle” of cost, waste and lead time - using the right technology at the right time, without compromising quality or regulatory compliance.

8. Many pharmaceutical manufacturers are modernizing operations through Pharma 4.0 and Pharma 5.0 initiatives. How is digitalization influencing packaging production, customization, and quality assurance processes?

At Allpack, digitalization is no longer a future vision - it is becoming a core enabler of supply chain resilience, flexibility, and quality excellence. As a Contract Packaging Organization (CPO), we are investing in technologies that help pharmaceutical companies manage increasing complexity while maintaining compliance, speed, and cost efficiency.
Today, digitalization influences our operations across three key areas:

Production Excellence

Electronic Batch Records (eBR) and paperless workflows improve data integrity and reduce manual interventions - we will implement one version of eBR this year
Real-time production monitoring increases transparency and supports faster decision making-  therefore we designed our own reporting tool

Mass Customization & Late-Stage Differentiation

Digital printing technologies allow smaller batch sizes, faster artwork changes, and market-specific customization without compromising lead times.

Advanced serialization and track-and-trace solutions support global compliance and supply chain visibility.

Connected packaging solutions, including GS1 2D codes and smart labels, create new opportunities for patient engagement and digital healthcare ecosystems.

Quality Assurance & Compliance

Automated vision inspection systems and digital quality controls improve consistency and reduce the risk of human error.

Predictive quality approaches enable earlier detection of deviations before they impact product supply.

Data-driven quality management supports regulatory compliance while accelerating release processes.

9. Personalized medicine and smaller production batches are changing packaging requirements. How must packaging strategies evolve to support greater flexibility while maintaining efficiency and compliance?

Personalized medicine is fundamentally changing pharmaceutical supply chains. Smaller patient populations, more market-specific requirements, and accelerated product launches are driving a shift from traditional large-volume packaging towards smaller, more complex, and more frequent production runs.

From Allpack's perspective, the key challenge is managing what we call the "small-lot and speed paradox": delivering highly customized packaging solutions while maintaining efficiency, compliance, and supply security.

To succeed, packaging strategies must evolve in three areas:

Flexible Manufacturing Platforms

Packaging operations need to be designed for rapid changeovers, short lead times, and varying batch sizes without compromising GMP compliance. Scalable packaging platforms and standardized processes are becoming increasingly important.

Late-Stage Customization

Rather than creating multiple packaging variants early in the supply chain, customization should be moved as close as possible to market demand. Digital printing, flexible artwork management, and market-specific serialization enable greater agility while reducing inventory risks and waste.

Data-Driven Compliance

As complexity increases, digital systems become essential. Electronic batch records, automated vision inspection, serialization, and integrated quality systems help ensure that flexibility does not come at the expense of patient safety or regulatory compliance.

At Allpack, we have built our organization around managing complexity. Whether a customer requires even MOQ 1, 1,000, or 200,000 folding boxes, the objective remains the same: delivering the right product, to the right market, at the right time, while maintaining the highest standards of quality and compliance.

The future of pharmaceutical packaging is not about producing larger volumes more efficiently -it is about producing greater variety more intelligently. The companies that can combine flexibility, speed, and compliance will be best positioned to support the next generation of personalized therapies.

10. Cold-chain logistics and sensitive biologics continue to expand globally. What packaging innovations are helping improve product protection, traceability, and temperature integrity throughout distribution networks?

The growth of biologics, advanced therapies, and temperature-sensitive medicines is placing increasing demands on pharmaceutical supply chains. Product protection, traceability, and temperature integrity have become critical factors in ensuring patient safety and product efficacy.

While Allpack's core expertise lies in secondary packaging rather than cold-chain transportation systems themselves, we see several important innovations shaping the industry:

Enhanced Traceability

Advanced serialization, GS1 2D codes, and connected packaging solutions are creating greater transparency across the supply chain. These technologies enable faster product verification, improved recall management, and increased protection against counterfeiting.

Digital Integration

The combination of packaging, serialization, and digital data platforms allows manufacturers and logistics partners to monitor product movements more effectively and maintain end-to-end supply chain visibility.

Risk Reduction through Robust Packaging Design

For temperature-sensitive products, packaging must not only protect the product physically but also support efficient handling, identification, and distribution. Clear labeling, tamper-evidence, and optimized packaging configurations help reduce operational risks throughout the supply chain.

Sustainability and Performance

The industry continues to seek solutions that balance thermal protection, regulatory compliance, and environmental responsibility, driving innovation in materials, packaging design, and logistics concepts.

11. Collaboration between packaging suppliers, pharmaceutical manufacturers, and technology providers is becoming increasingly important. What collaborative approaches are most critical for accelerating innovation in pharmaceutical packaging?

At Allpack, we believe that innovation in pharmaceutical packaging does not happen in isolation. It requires close collaboration between pharmaceutical companies, packaging specialists, technology providers, and material suppliers.

One of our key strengths is our local innovation ecosystem. Being located in the Basel pharmaceutical cluster allows us to work closely with some of the most innovative suppliers, technology companies, and pharmaceutical partners in the industry. This proximity enables us to test, evaluate, and implement new technologies much faster than in a traditional supplier relationship.

Our approach is deliberately open and pragmatic: we do not want to develop every technology ourselves. Instead, we build partnerships with the best technology and material specialists and integrate their capabilities into our packaging platforms.

This creates a powerful combination of pharma expertise, packaging know-how, and technology innovation - from digital printing and vision inspection to serialization, smart packaging, and sustainable materials.

The real competitive advantage is therefore not simply having access to the latest technology. It is having the right ecosystem and the ability to turn innovation into GMP-compliant, scalable solutions for our customers.

For us, collaboration is ultimately about shortening the path from innovation → industrialization → successful market launch.

12. Regulatory expectations around sustainability and packaging waste are intensifying worldwide. Which emerging regulations do you believe will have the biggest influence on pharmaceutical packaging strategies moving forward?

The regulation expected to have the greatest impact in the coming years is undoubtedly the EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR). PPWR introduces lifecycle-based requirements covering recyclability, packaging minimization, material selection, labelling, waste reduction, and Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR). The regulation is designed to make packaging more circular while reducing environmental impact across the entire value chain.

For pharmaceutical companies, the challenge will be balancing sustainability targets with patient safety, regulatory compliance, supply security, and operational efficiency. Sustainable packaging solutions must never compromise product stability, child resistance, tamper evidence, or global regulatory requirements.

At Allpack, we see sustainability regulations not as a future challenge, but as an opportunity to support our customers with compliant and practical packaging solutions today.

As a platform provider, we work closely with leading packaging material suppliers, technology partners, and pharmaceutical manufacturers to evaluate sustainable packaging concepts while maintaining the highest standards for GMP compliance, product protection, and patient safety.

Our approach focuses on three key areas:

Material flexibility: Supporting the transition towards more sustainable and recyclable packaging structures where technically and regulatorily feasible.

Operational optimization: Leveraging multiple packaging and printing technologies to reduce waste, improve efficiency, and optimize the balance between cost, lead time, and sustainability.

Supply chain resilience: Combining local expertise with a strong network of innovative suppliers to ensure sustainable solutions can be implemented without compromising launch timelines or supply security.

Ultimately, the biggest winners will be pharmaceutical companies that integrate sustainability into their packaging strategy early. At Allpack, we are helping customers navigate this transition by combining regulatory expertise, operational excellence, and a strong ecosystem of innovation partners.

13. As packaging becomes more technology-driven, what skills and capabilities will organizations need to build future-ready packaging and design teams?

As pharmaceutical packaging becomes increasingly technology-driven, organizations will need to combine traditional packaging expertise with digital, regulatory, and sustainability capabilities. Future packaging teams must be able to manage growing complexity while ensuring patient safety, regulatory compliance, and supply chain resilience.

Key capabilities will include:

Digitalization & Data Management (serialization, smart packaging, AI-supported quality systems)
Sustainability-by-Design and lifecycle thinking
Regulatory and compliance expertise
Human-centered packaging design
Automation and advanced manufacturing technologies
Cross-functional collaboration across the value chain

We believe the future of pharmaceutical packaging is not built by specialists working in silos, but by multidisciplinary teams connected through a strong innovation ecosystem.

As a Contract Packaging Organization (CPO), our strength lies in combining packaging engineering, GMP compliance, operational excellence, digital technologies, and supply chain expertise under one roof. Our teams work daily across blistering, bottling, serialization, digital printing, artwork management, and launch execution, giving us a holistic view of the pharmaceutical packaging lifecycle.

Equally important is our collaborative approach. We actively partner with leading material suppliers, technology providers, machine manufacturers, and pharmaceutical companies to bring innovation rapidly into validated production environments. This allows our customers to benefit from the latest developments without having to build every capability internally.

14. Looking ahead, what will define the next generation of pharmaceutical packaging, and which technologies or design philosophies will shape the industry over the next decade?

We believe the next generation of pharmaceutical packaging will be defined by one key principle: managing complexity without adding complexity for the patient or the pharmaceutical manufacturer.

Over the next decade, packaging will evolve from a protective component into a strategic platform that combines product protection, patient experience, sustainability, digital connectivity, and supply chain resilience. Smart packaging technologies, connected data ecosystems, advanced serialization, and more sustainable packaging structures will become standard expectations rather than differentiators.

From an Allpack perspective, five developments will shape the industry:

1. Digital-First Packaging

Packaging will increasingly become a digital touchpoint. GS1 2D codes, smart labels, serialization, and patient engagement solutions will connect physical packaging with digital information and services.

2. Sustainability Without Compromise

The future belongs to packaging solutions that reduce material consumption, improve recyclability, and support circular economy objectives while maintaining pharmaceutical-grade protection and regulatory compliance.

3. Late-Stage Customization

Global products will increasingly be adapted closer to the market. Flexible packaging platforms, digital printing, and agile supply chains will enable faster launches, reduced inventory risk, and improved responsiveness to changing market requirements.

4. Data-Driven Operations

Artificial intelligence, vision systems, predictive quality management, and automated workflows will transform packaging operations. The winners will be companies that can convert data into faster decisions, higher quality, and greater supply security.

5. Resilience by Design

Future packaging strategies must be designed around supply security. Multi-sourcing, local partnerships, flexible production platforms, and regional packaging hubs will become increasingly important in a volatile global environment.

What does it mean for us at Allpack?

We do not see ourselves simply as a packaging supplier. We see ourselves as a pharmaceutical packaging platform that integrates technology, compliance, operations, and innovation.

Our investments in digital printing, serialization, advanced inspection systems, flexible packaging technologies, and strong partnerships with leading suppliers enable us to bring innovation into validated GMP environments quickly and safely.

The future of pharmaceutical packaging will not be defined by a single technology. It will be defined by the ability to combine sustainability, digitalization, speed-to-market, and supply security into one integrated solution. That is exactly where Allpack creates value for its customers today - and where we believe the industry is heading tomorrow.