Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/1467950
14 BioPharm International May 2022 eBook www.biopharminternational.com Converting Injectable Therapies to Combination Drug-Device Products The author describes how to seize market opportunities while navigating the requirements of both drug therapies and delivery devices. T he global biopharma market has experienced a remarkable period of evolution and expansion. In that time, parenteral medications have become one of the industry's most important innovation and growth drivers. Fueled by a continuing shift toward at-home, self- administered ca re — an established trend accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic—the rapid surge in demand for i njec table t her apie s is set to cont i nue i n t he coming years. Between 2020 and 2027, sales of parenteral medications are projected to expand from 53–57% of global market volume, with most of those gains taken away from oral drugs (1). But with that growth comes changing expectations. As many more drug developers are discovering, demand for inject- able therapies isn't simply growing; it's shifting rapidly toward products that maximize patient-centricity and support val- ue-based at-home care models. For manufacturers, this shift means that sustainable market success often lies beyond conventional vial- and syringe-based formats. Today, optimizing injectable therapies for convenience, simplicity, and safety means ultimately converting them to patient-friendly formats such as pens, autoinjectors, and wear- able delivery devices—an undertaking that adds multiple layers of complexity to the fill/finish workflow. While these formats may make administration and adherence easier for users, they require manufacturers to simultaneously tackle all the techni- cal, logistic, and regulatory challenges of both aseptic filling and delivery device assembly. MARKUS HÖRBURGER is produc t and ser vice manager Secondar y Packaging & Device Assembly at Vetter. MARKUS HÖRBURGER Partnerships for Outsourcing Development M.Dörr & M.Frommherz - STOCK.ADOBE.COM