India Pharmaceutical Packaging Market Size

India Pharmaceutical Packaging Market Analysis

The India Pharmaceutical Packaging Market size is estimated at USD 17.84 billion in 2024, and is expected to reach USD 33.32 billion by 2029, growing at a CAGR of 13.30% during the forecast period (2024-2029).

The growing population, rising health awareness, and increasing life expectancy can be attributed to the growth of the pharmaceutical packaging industry. Moreover, growing awareness of environmental issues due to traditional packaging material and the adoption of new regulatory standards for packaging recycling is also driving the pharmaceutical packaging industry in India. There is also an impact of the Russia-Ukraine war on the overall packaging ecosystem.

• India is the second most populated country, with 1.4 billion people, and is the fifth-largest economy. Despite significant improvements in healthcare in the past years, the number of chronic disease cases is surging rapidly. According to the WHO report, over 20% of the country's population suffers from at least one of the non-communicable diseases or chronic diseases, such as cancer, heart ailments, respiratory diseases, and diabetes, that are estimated to cost India USD 6.2 trillion during the period 2012-2030. To prevent economic burden in the coming years, most pharmaceutical companies are researching and developing a novel vaccine that would drive the growth of the pharmaceutical packaging market in India.
• Further, the Indian government is providing free health coverage to poor people with the help of national programs. Every year, more than six crore people are pushed into poverty because of medical expenses. For instance, Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB PM-JAY) is a scheme of the National Health Policy that aims to provide free health coverage to the bottom 40% of the poor and vulnerable population.
• Since the scheme, Arogya Yojana had launched two years ago, and until February 2020, more than 12 crore e-cards have been generated, and over 86 lakh people have benefited under the scheme. As now more people can opt the medical assistance, the manufacturing of drugs is expected to augment the packaging industry in the future.
• There is a significant usage of plastic packaging in the pharmaceutical packaging market in India. Blister packs are one of the most prominent packaging methods and are commonly used in the pharmaceutical market. Blister packs are used for tablets, ampoules, syringes, and vials, and they offer individual packing of medicine doses and keep other doses intact.
• Packaging in the pharmaceutical industry varies from drug to drug. Usually, there are three levels of packaging, commonly referred to as primary, secondary, and tertiary packaging. The primary packaging system is the material first enveloping the product and holds it, i.e., those package components and subcomponents that come in contact with the product or those that may have a direct effect on the product shelf-life, e.g., ampoules and vials, prefilled syringes, IV containers, blister packs, etc.
• The market expansion, however, is projected to be restrained by growing packaging costs brought on by strict laws and anti-counterfeiting initiatives. Thus, one of the difficulties faced by makers of pharmaceutical packaging is containing these rising packaging costs.
• COVID-19 impact with nationwide lockdown, government regulations, and the steady rise in the national infection rate had far-reaching financial effects on the packaging market, especially in the early stages. However, the pandemic had provided way to growing market demand for packaging as the outbreak raised consumer concerns about the virus's ability to survive on packaging surfaces.