Child-resistant packaging, is designed to prevent young children from ingesting products that could be harmful or toxic. CRP is a growing area in packaging with analysts' forecast that expect +7.4% growth over the next 5 years. PharmaPack interviews Dr. Rolf Abelmann, Managing Director of IVM (Institut VerpackungsMarktforschung GmbH) to find out more.

For what kind of drugs are CRP features important?

Child-resistant packages should be used when the packaged pharmaceutical product contains a potential harmful dose for small children. By this children shall be protected of unintentional poisoning.

What markets have regulatory requirements on CRP features? Are they all mandatory?

As an example all drugs on prescription (even mass therapies like calcium channel blocker or SSRIs, beside the well-known therapies in oncology etc.) as well as a list of OTC products (like NSARs) have to be packed child-resistant in the US. This is regulated in the Poison Prevention Packaging Act (PPPA). European countries like Germany, the UK, etc as well as countries like Australia or New Zealand have also published lists of pharmaceutical active ingredients that require CRP.

What are barriers for pharma companies that keep them from adopting CRP features?

Missing awareness of different international legislation for child intoxication data can be a reason. Also misinterpretation of testing and certification legislation can lead to incorrect decisions in pharmaceutical packaging selection. Very often changes in packaging in the pharmaceutical industry also require a very long time.

What advice you can give for pharma to start CRP project now?

The goal of selecting or designing CRP must be defined at the beginning of the development of medicines and its packaging. Only certified CRP products comply with international regulations. To start with a project now is useful, because regarding the regulations to the topic “Serialization”, a change in packaging is ongoing.

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