Shem Oriere, Africa Correspondent10.03.22
The drive by African governments to reverse the current inadequate access to medicines is gaining momentum, as governments in the region announce new partnerships with pharmaceutical companies and development partners to scale up investment in the manufacturing of pharmaceutical products with more focus on vaccines.
Increasing pharmaceutical manufacturing in Africa would not only reduce dependence on imported human medicines, now estimated at 94% of the continent’s requirements, but would scale up Africa’s share of the global pharma production, now estimated at a mere 3%.
This trend is also expected to trigger increased demand for pharmaceutical packaging, for purposes of identification, protection and reliability. It would also increase the need for pharmaceutical packaging ink, which is used on the vaccine containers and also on the interior and exterior of medicine packs to ensure safety of consumers in this continent of 1.3 billion people.
Expanding Africa’s pharmaceutical production capacity, through the Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Plan for Africa (PMPA) spearheaded by Africa Union, a continental organization of 55 countries, and its partners, is currently focusing more on production of vaccines, especially those for COVID-19 that would increase demand for packaging solutions. This includes vials, prefilled syringes, ampoules, bags and pouches that require labelling with various types of ink including solvent-based, water-based and edible inks, among others.
With more than 90% of the world’s malaria deaths and 70% of all people living with HIV/AIDS being in Africa, the drive to expand manufacturing of pharmaceutical products is in top gear to supply the region’s diagnostic centers, chemical research organizations and other healthcare facilities with good medicines.
For example, American pharmaceutical and biotechnology company Moderna Inc., which pioneered messenger RNA (mRNA) therapeutics and vaccines, recently announced that with the assistance of the US government, it had entered into a memorandum of understanding with Kenya for the establishment of a manufacturing facility in the East African country.
The proposed state-of-the-art mRNA facility, which would produce up to 500 million doses of vaccines annually, is worth $500 million.
Although the facility will focus on drug substance manufacturing to supply the continent of Africa, the company said the facility could also be expanded to include fill/finish and packaging capabilities at the site which could boost demand for pharmaceutical packaging ink.
Elsewhere, South Africa-based drug maker Aspen Pharmcare company recently signed a deal to package, sell and distribute Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines under its Aspenvax brand name across the African market.
Demand, supply and distribution of pharmaceutical packaging and associated labelling inks would partly be influenced by the regulatory framework provided by WHO, that has for decades prepared model labels for vials and packaging for diverse vaccines to guide manufacturers on the approved format.
With the outbreak of COVID-19 and subsequent scaling up of investments in vaccine manufacturing such as is happening in Africa, WHO has recently released new proposals for vial and carton label requirements so as to unify the labelling requirements for vaccines, especially those supplied through programmes such as the COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access, also known as COVAX facility.
The WHO vaccine packaging labeling guideline is likely to bolster the exterior packaging segment of the pharmaceutical packaging market due to the wide range of information that needs to be printed, such as dosage instructions, expiration date, and composition of the product, for ease of consumer use.
With more than 90% of the pharmaceutical products used in Africa being imports, the pharmaceutical packaging market is still dominated by foreign products, and so is the pharmaceutical packaging inks, whose size and general data is hard to confirm.
However, some of the international pharmaceutical packaging ink companies have previously made business decisions that in one way or the other impacts the African pharmaceutical packaging market.
For example, Toyo Ink SC Holdings Co. Ltd., the parent company of the Japanese Toyo Ink Group, had previously unveiled plans of setting up its first African office in Casablanca, Morocco.
“Following China and India, the African continent is believed to be one of the future growth engines of the global economy,” said Katsumi Kitagawa, chairman of Toyo Ink Group in a previous statement.
The Japanese ink giant said the new subsidiary “will be engaged in developing business opportunities for a wide range of Group products such as commercial printing inks, liquid (flexo and gravure) inks and adhesives for food packaging, and can coatings.”
Moreover, Toyo Ink North Africa “will not only focus on expanding sales and the development of ink products, but also work to increase sales of the Group’s growing chemical businesses.”
Another pharmaceutical packaging ink company, Sensient Technologies, which had been operating in South Africa since 1995 through its unit Sensient Colors, had in 2014 announced new investment and expansion of production and distribution of facilities in South Africa.
Sensient Colors said at the time of construction of the new facility, it would have positioned “Sensient as the only international color supplier with a local sale, development, production and distribution center in South Africa.”
Meanwhile, ink manufacturers globally have been implementing price increases and surcharges to try to cope with higher raw material and transportation costs.
Early in 2022, Sun Chemical, which in 2020 acquired Sensient Technologies’ inks product line, implemented energy surcharges across its entire portfolio of packaging, commercial sheetfed, and screen inks, coatings, consumables, and adhesives in Europe, Middle East, and Africa.
The decision to effect surcharges, the company explained, was triggered by the “unprecedented pace of inflationary cost movements.”
Nevertheless, with the demand growth of vaccines and other pharmaceutical products expected to increase in Africa, largely driven by the ever-growing number of consumers and also the scaling up of vaccination by international organizations such as WHO and UNICEF, demand for vaccine packaging solutions is likely to remain significantly high, hence boosting the consumption of quality pharmaceutical packaging inks in the region.
Increasing pharmaceutical manufacturing in Africa would not only reduce dependence on imported human medicines, now estimated at 94% of the continent’s requirements, but would scale up Africa’s share of the global pharma production, now estimated at a mere 3%.
This trend is also expected to trigger increased demand for pharmaceutical packaging, for purposes of identification, protection and reliability. It would also increase the need for pharmaceutical packaging ink, which is used on the vaccine containers and also on the interior and exterior of medicine packs to ensure safety of consumers in this continent of 1.3 billion people.
Expanding Africa’s pharmaceutical production capacity, through the Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Plan for Africa (PMPA) spearheaded by Africa Union, a continental organization of 55 countries, and its partners, is currently focusing more on production of vaccines, especially those for COVID-19 that would increase demand for packaging solutions. This includes vials, prefilled syringes, ampoules, bags and pouches that require labelling with various types of ink including solvent-based, water-based and edible inks, among others.
New Pharmaceutical Developments
Some of the recently announced pharmaceutical manufacturing investment plans have a packaging component that is likely to increase demand for primary packaging solutions such as blisters, bottles, caps & closures, labels, pouches, strip packs and jars as well as secondary and tertiary protective material for either semi-solid, solid or liquid pharmaceutical products, once the approved pharmaceutical manufacturing investment projects come online.With more than 90% of the world’s malaria deaths and 70% of all people living with HIV/AIDS being in Africa, the drive to expand manufacturing of pharmaceutical products is in top gear to supply the region’s diagnostic centers, chemical research organizations and other healthcare facilities with good medicines.
For example, American pharmaceutical and biotechnology company Moderna Inc., which pioneered messenger RNA (mRNA) therapeutics and vaccines, recently announced that with the assistance of the US government, it had entered into a memorandum of understanding with Kenya for the establishment of a manufacturing facility in the East African country.
The proposed state-of-the-art mRNA facility, which would produce up to 500 million doses of vaccines annually, is worth $500 million.
Although the facility will focus on drug substance manufacturing to supply the continent of Africa, the company said the facility could also be expanded to include fill/finish and packaging capabilities at the site which could boost demand for pharmaceutical packaging ink.
Elsewhere, South Africa-based drug maker Aspen Pharmcare company recently signed a deal to package, sell and distribute Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines under its Aspenvax brand name across the African market.
Demand, supply and distribution of pharmaceutical packaging and associated labelling inks would partly be influenced by the regulatory framework provided by WHO, that has for decades prepared model labels for vials and packaging for diverse vaccines to guide manufacturers on the approved format.
With the outbreak of COVID-19 and subsequent scaling up of investments in vaccine manufacturing such as is happening in Africa, WHO has recently released new proposals for vial and carton label requirements so as to unify the labelling requirements for vaccines, especially those supplied through programmes such as the COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access, also known as COVAX facility.
The WHO vaccine packaging labeling guideline is likely to bolster the exterior packaging segment of the pharmaceutical packaging market due to the wide range of information that needs to be printed, such as dosage instructions, expiration date, and composition of the product, for ease of consumer use.
With more than 90% of the pharmaceutical products used in Africa being imports, the pharmaceutical packaging market is still dominated by foreign products, and so is the pharmaceutical packaging inks, whose size and general data is hard to confirm.
However, some of the international pharmaceutical packaging ink companies have previously made business decisions that in one way or the other impacts the African pharmaceutical packaging market.
For example, Toyo Ink SC Holdings Co. Ltd., the parent company of the Japanese Toyo Ink Group, had previously unveiled plans of setting up its first African office in Casablanca, Morocco.
“Following China and India, the African continent is believed to be one of the future growth engines of the global economy,” said Katsumi Kitagawa, chairman of Toyo Ink Group in a previous statement.
The Japanese ink giant said the new subsidiary “will be engaged in developing business opportunities for a wide range of Group products such as commercial printing inks, liquid (flexo and gravure) inks and adhesives for food packaging, and can coatings.”
Moreover, Toyo Ink North Africa “will not only focus on expanding sales and the development of ink products, but also work to increase sales of the Group’s growing chemical businesses.”
Another pharmaceutical packaging ink company, Sensient Technologies, which had been operating in South Africa since 1995 through its unit Sensient Colors, had in 2014 announced new investment and expansion of production and distribution of facilities in South Africa.
Sensient Colors said at the time of construction of the new facility, it would have positioned “Sensient as the only international color supplier with a local sale, development, production and distribution center in South Africa.”
Meanwhile, ink manufacturers globally have been implementing price increases and surcharges to try to cope with higher raw material and transportation costs.
Early in 2022, Sun Chemical, which in 2020 acquired Sensient Technologies’ inks product line, implemented energy surcharges across its entire portfolio of packaging, commercial sheetfed, and screen inks, coatings, consumables, and adhesives in Europe, Middle East, and Africa.
The decision to effect surcharges, the company explained, was triggered by the “unprecedented pace of inflationary cost movements.”
Nevertheless, with the demand growth of vaccines and other pharmaceutical products expected to increase in Africa, largely driven by the ever-growing number of consumers and also the scaling up of vaccination by international organizations such as WHO and UNICEF, demand for vaccine packaging solutions is likely to remain significantly high, hence boosting the consumption of quality pharmaceutical packaging inks in the region.