Where the future of pharma is produced – what new therapies demand from processing and packaging

From biologics to cell therapies: innovative medicines require new answers in production and packaging. Automation, data connectivity, and sustainable materials are becoming key to efficiency and safety. interpack 2026 makes this transformation tangible – and shows how the pharmaceutical industry is shaping its future.

The pharmaceutical industry is at a turning point. Never before have therapies been so precise, so effective – and at the same time so demanding to manufacture. Biologics, cell and gene therapies, and highly potent active pharmaceutical ingredients are not only transforming medicine, but also the way products are produced, packaged, and controlled. Where standardized processes once prevailed, flexible, highly interconnected systems are now required. Processing and packaging are moving closer together – becoming a strategic factor.

That the market continues to grow underscores the dynamism of the industry. Worldwide demand for pharmaceutical products is rising, driven by demographic trends, new therapy formats, and expanding healthcare markets in Asia, South America, and the Middle East. However, growth alone is no longer sufficient. What matters is how efficiently, safely, and sustainably this growth is achieved.

With new active ingredients, requirements are increasing along the entire line. Production environments must be extremely clean, processes fully controllable, and equipment rapidly adaptable. At the same time, regulatory requirements are becoming more stringent – not only with regard to quality and sterility, but also in terms of transparency and traceability.

Thomas Fricke, Commercial Director at IMA, sums up the situation: “The pharmaceutical industry is under significant pressure due to the advance of biologics, cell and gene therapies, and highly potent active ingredients. All of these areas require more advanced, more flexible, and more connected technologies. In addition, regulatory requirements for quality, sterility, and real-time traceability are becoming increasingly stringent.”

The trend is moving toward modular, scalable production concepts that can be quickly adapted to new products and smaller batch sizes – without compromising safety and compliance.

Time, cost, and complexity leave little room for isolated solutions. Today, development, technology transfer, and production must be closely intertwined. Data becomes the connecting element – helping companies better understand processes, identify risks at an early stage, and scale more quickly. “Today, companies need to integrate development, technology transfer, and production on a data-driven basis instead of optimizing them in isolation – only then can processes be designed to be efficient, safe, and scalable,” says Joachim Dittrich, CEO of Fette Compacting.

Continuous manufacturing, virtual test scenarios, and digital twins shorten development timelines while simultaneously increasing process reliability. Efficiency is not achieved through speed alone, but through well-founded decisions based on valid data.

For a long time, sustainability was seen as an additional burden; today, it is increasingly becoming a lever for efficiency. Automated, digitally controlled processes help reduce material and energy consumption, prevent waste, and use resources more effectively. “Automation or sustainability” is therefore no longer an either/or question. Thomas Fricke (IMA) puts this into perspective: “This is the central challenge for the pharmaceutical industry, as none of these topics can be considered in isolation without neglecting others.”

At the same time, regulatory pressure is increasing – for example through new European packaging regulations. This gives rise to conflicting objectives that many companies are currently addressing intensively. Michael Mrachacz, CSO & Managing Director at Uhlmann Pac-Systeme, explains: “Rising requirements for automation, data security, and sustainability in particular are driving the pressure for transformation. This is further intensified by regulatory frameworks such as the PPWR. As a result, a conflict of objectives emerges between product protection, reduced packaging volumes, and economic efficiency.”

Sustainable pharmaceutical packaging today means more than simply reducing material use. What is needed are solutions that are recyclable, safe, and at the same time easy to integrate into existing processes. The focus is particularly on mono-materials and PVC-free alternatives. Valerio Soli, CEO of the Marchesini Group, sees significant innovation potential here: “In recent years, we have built an interdisciplinary team dedicated in particular to analyzing new packaging materials and their processing properties, in order to use the requirements of the PPWR regulation as an opportunity. We are driving the replacement of PVC with recyclable mono-material solutions – for example in blisters and trays – and are focusing on materials such as rPET, PP, and PVC-free aluminum.”

This makes it clear that sustainability no longer starts with packaging alone, but is embedded in the entire equipment and process strategy.