Transparency Market Research recently announced that by 2027, the global medical packaging market is expected to grow at an annual rate of 5%. In 2018, the market size covering terminal medicine, biological packaging, medical equipment packaging and medical supplies packaging was 91 billion US dollars (82 billion euros), which is equivalent to 167 billion medical packaging units.
The report states that plastics are increasingly using plastics as raw materials to replace glass because of their durability, wide availability, low cost, and flexibility, which can significantly reduce operating costs.
Medical packaging is also moving in the direction of child-resistant, tamper-resistant, anti-counterfeiting, and elderly-friendly packaging, which can be achieved by improving the material properties and functions of packaging products. Manufacturers can choose suitable materials from PE, PP, PS, PVC, PA and PU according to their packaging needs.
2/3 of the global medical packaging is plastic packaging, and plastic will continue to be a popular material for the production of medical packaging products. However, the report states that in order to address environmental issues, manufacturers need to focus their investments on sustainable materials, and their investment in research and development of paper packaging materials may increase the market share of paper and cardboard by 2027.
The report argues that while traditionally the medical packaging industry is still driven by cost and safety, functionality and performance are becoming increasingly important. RFID tags and barcode technology will solve the problem of anti-counterfeiting. The report states that medical packaging manufacturers' focus on anti-counterfeit packaging solutions is a successful strategy for achieving high volume sales.