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Why sustainable pharma packaging is a strategic advantage
Listen to the latest podcast on how sustainable pharmaceutical packaging is becoming a strategic lever for regulatory compliance, supply chain resilience and decarbonization.
In the latest episode of EY India Insights, Kapil Bansal, Partner, Energy Transition and Decarbonization at EY-Parthenon India, discusses how pharmaceutical packaging is evolving from a functional necessity to a strategic lever for sustainability, regulatory compliance and supply-chain resilience. He further shares insights on sustainable packaging innovations, circular economy models and strategies for pharma organizations to stay ahead.
Kapil explains that regulatory pressures, scientific advancements and patient expectations are driving this shift, making packaging integral to R&D and brand trust. He highlights emerging material innovations such as recyclable mono-material films, bio-based polymers and low-carbon aluminium, along with digital and smart packaging solutions that enhance traceability, reduce waste and improve compliance.
EPR and carbon regulations require proactive design and transparent global compliance.
In a circular economy, recyclable design and strong collaboration across supply-chains is needed.
Smart packaging can enhance traceability, reduce waste and enable regulatory compliance.
The future of pharmaceutical packaging lies in systems that protect patients, preserves the planet and strengthen long-term growth through sustainable mechanisms and digital integration.
Kapil Bansal
Partner, Energy Transition and Decarbonization, EY-Parthenon India
For your convenience, a full text transcript of this podcast is available on the link below:
Romita Majumdar
Welcome to a new episode of EY India Insights, where we explore the trends shaping industries and enabling long-term value creation. In today’s episode, we discuss how pharmaceutical packaging is evolving from a functional necessity into a strategic lever for sustainability, regulatory compliance and supply-chain resilience. I am pleased to be joined by Kapil Bansal, Partner, Energy Transition and Decarbonization, EY India. Kapil works closely with Indian and global organizations to drive energy transition, decarbonization and sustainable transformation, helping businesses navigate regulatory change, reduce carbon footprints and build future-ready value chains. He will share insights on sustainable packaging innovations, circular economy models and what pharma organizations need to do to stay ahead.
Welcome, Kapil. Thank you for joining us.
Kapil Bansal
Thanks, Romita. The pleasure is all mine.
Romita Majumdar
My first query is that pharmaceutical packaging has traditionally focused on safety and compliance. What is driving the shift towards making packaging a strategic lever for sustainability?
Kapil Bansal
The pharmaceutical industry has primarily focused on a protective shell that ensures safety, stability and relative compliance. However, things are changing, converging towards three pronged powerful forces. One, governments are not only looking at product safety; they are also looking at the environmental footprint of packaging through different mechanisms like extended producer responsibility (EPR), including EPR packaging waste rule and carbon disclosure frameworks, making packaging a regulatory spotlight. Second, there is a convergence of science and product complexities through which pharmaceuticals are moving towards biologicals, high-potential APIs and temperature-sensitive therapies. Packaging is no longer a passive mechanism — It has become a reactive mechanism, with material choices affecting drug stability, acceptability, shelf life, making packaging a core part of the overall R&D strategy. Then, from both the market and the consumer perspective, patients expect not only effective pharmaceutical products but also responsible and efficient delivery. Sustainability has become a proxy to ensure trust and quality. Hence, we see this shift as packaging moves from a cost center to a strategic lever, influencing carbon footprint, market access, patient outcomes and long-term competitiveness.
Romita Majumdar
Thank you, Kapil. How are global regulations evolving such as packaging waste rules and carbon related frameworks reshaping pharma packaging strategies? How should companies prepare for what lies ahead?
Kapil Bansal
I elaborated on some of these regulations like packaging-based rules, EPR and cross-border carbon mechanisms, which are forcing pharmaceutical companies to rethink about material choices, sourcing and reporting. There is a direct effect of the packaging decision, especially in markets like Europe. The best companies are building complete carbon reporting as well as the complete recyclability in the most transparent and full proof manner for the materials they are using, which can provide them mechanisms to be very transparent to their regulatory aspects as well as to their customers. They are also collaborating closely with their suppliers to reduce all possible emissions and their beyond production boundaries, which is not under their control. Finally, they are looking to keep themselves ahead of any regulatory landscape because pharmaceuticals is an industry which is highly regulated and with the new carbon regulations and the packaging rules, they have to be ahead of the game.
Romita Majumdar
Thank you, what material innovations are emerging in sustainable pharmaceutical packaging? How can companies balance sustainability goals with product stability, safety and performance requirements?
Kapil Bansal
Product stability is paramount in the pharmaceutical environment. In terms of pharmaceutical packaging, which reaches to the end consumer, there has been a significant momentum in the overall material science. Some examples include top layer of limb, which we call blisters, have recyclable mono-material films and halogen free laminations. There are polymers made out of bio-based materials, which are completely biodegradable and have carbon neutrality. At the bottom you have aluminum foil, these aluminum foils are not purely green, but low carbon aluminum foils are available, which are produced through recycling of aluminum.
Aluminum as a product can be recycled multiple times. Different materials are being put into the packaging, which are significantly looked from two perspectives: What is their embodied ambition from the carbon standpoint of view to reduce its intensity and second in what way is this recyclability can be brought back all circular. If I use a material today, can I reuse it? Pharmaceutical companies are doing without compromising on the safety and stability in the performance. They have started integrating packaging materials in such a manner that they can benefit from the material that has been used, which is carbon neutral and low on emissions.
There are mechanisms through which they create barriers in the performance, from the drug to packaging in which performance is not compromised, but overall, sustainability factors are increased. They are increasingly using cleaner materials which reduces drug interactions, reachability, protein aggregation, especially for the biologics. Hence sustainability has become an integral part of overall R&D and from a long-term perspective, we see it as an emerging trend.
Romita Majumdar
Thank you. What role does digital and smart packaging solutions such as traceability, smart labeling and data transparency play in improving sustainability, safety and supply chain efficiency?
Kapil Bansal
Thank you for asking this question because, in today's world we are talking about AI data centers and sustainability where digital technologies play a significant role. Some of the technologies we already know — technologies that have significantly impacted the financial services industry — are seeing its applicability in the pharmaceutical packaging industry, such as QR code, civilization, NFRs, NFCs and smart centers, which improve overall traceability of the material, reducing counterfeiting, ensuring overall safety and the outcome is the sustainability benefits that one can see through. The second point of view is that, a lot of the time, there is over-packaging and there is a lot of wastage in the overall packaging systems. Instead of using manual processes, organizations adopt digital processes, automation and robotics, which reduce the amount of old packaging and reduce the amount of wastage in the overall supply chain. There is real-time tracking which improves integrity, reduces product loss, reduces quality giveaway, which, in a way, helps the overall carbon footprint reduction.
From an operational perspective, data transparency leads to faster recalls, better demand planning, lower inventories and supports the overall regulatory compliance, which becomes auditable and recorded across different geographical diversions that are there in different geographies of markets in which pharmaceutical companies operate.
In short, smart packaging is a data-enabled asset—moving from a static container where there was nothing that can be done in the erstwhile time to now in the digital world.
Romita Majumdar
Thank you. How can pharma companies practically adopt circular economy models for packaging? What are the key challenges in implementing these across complex global supply chains?
Kapil Bansal
I would like to start with the challenges and then provide a perspective on what can be done. When you are looking for circularity, the main challenge is the uneven recycling infrastructure; it is completely unorganized. There is no common harmonization of regulations. It is all fragmented. Each country or geography has its own set of regulations.
There is no way to verify if things are being done in the right manner, especially when it comes to countries such as India. We are the second largest from a plastic pollution standpoint. So, getting it all right — from the time your factory existed and bringing it back, which is the definition of circularity — becomes a challenge.
You need the whole ecosystem to work together with you — not just a single company initiative. It has to be the overall supply chain in a circular manner than a linear manner. So those are the challenges. What can a company do in its own controllable manner where there is opportunity for a circular economy? During the time of the packaging itself, the design should be built and the R&D should be done in a manner where the overall packaging should be on the higher side of recyclability.
So When you are designing it, you make the recyclability content while keeping safety and stability in place so that tomorrow, when it comes back for recycling, the players in the ecosystem can recycle 100% of it. This is something that a company can do to increase its circular economy.
Second, in the overall practical scenarios, they can have takeback programs, better segregation of the source that comes through recycling and collaborate in a multimodal recycling business models.
Companies are significantly using takeback models and shared infrastructures for recycling, which are being co-funded by not only the packaging companies, but also their end pharmaceutical customers. This is further expanded from the digital standpoint of view to have complete traceability and fulfillment of regulatory compliances.
In that way, these challenges can be solved with the things that packaging companies do in the pharmaceutical value chain.
Romita Majumdar
Beyond compliance, how does sustainable packaging create long term business value and what trends do you believe will define the future of pharmaceutical packaging over the next decade?
Kapil Bansal
I will break down this question in two parts. One is looking at sustainable packaging, creating value in three enduring manners. It reduces the overall risk factors that are due to regulatory price volatility, supply disruption and offers commercial benefits because you can reduce your carbon footprint and carbon prices; traceability reduces the overall supply chain losses.
You can always charge a premium if you are a more sustainable company, which also provides added brand reputation. Finally, innovation and efficiency — the lighter the weight of packaging, reduces the logistics cost. Digital integration helps in terms of overall cost reduction with the time to market and improving performance.
So those are some of the value creation parts. We did a study and provided one case study with one of our clients. They are looking ahead in the game in terms of shipping, low carbon circular material in the mainstream of data usage, providing digital connectivity, with patient centricity, or as we say, customer centric.
We are now looking at patient-centric packaging, providing product-level carbon traceability, alignment with the global regulation technology and sustainability. Ultimately, the future of pharmaceutical packaging lies in the system that protects patients, preserves the planet through sustainable mechanisms and strengthens the long-term growth of the companies that are future-ready.
Romita Majumdar
Thank you for sharing your perspectives on how sustainable packaging can create a meaningful impact across the pharmaceutical value chain.
Kapil Bansal
Thank you for having me and having this discussion. I appreciate that.
Romita Majumdar
Thank you to our listeners for tuning in to this episode of EY India Insights. We look forward to bringing you more conversations on the idea of shaping the future of business. Thank you.
