Partners in progress: PPL 2026 

PPL 2026 brought together India’s pharma packaging ecosystem to explore how collaboration, innovation, and technical expertise can strengthen patient safety, product stability, and operational efficiency. Across partner-led sessions, speakers discussed how structured systems, material science, regulatory alignment, and technology integration collectively elevate packaging from a support function to a strategic enabler.

Building on the importance of structured systems, the sessions began with combination products, where packaging directly influences therapeutic performance. Prabhaharan Sankaran, Manager – Technical Customer Services, India, West Pharmaceutical Services, highlighted that regulatory expectations for electronic drug delivery systems and integrated formats are steadily evolving. Submissions must now address all relevant performance criteria through a holistic, risk-based framework rather than isolated testing. In this complex landscape, specialised expertise and integrated capabilities are critical to streamline development, validation, and regulatory readiness.

From combination products, the discussion moved into chemical interfaces, particularly the challenge of nitrosamine control. Dr Vivek Jha, Head – R&D, Cilicant, and Dhairy Sharma, Manager – Business Development, Healthcare Division, explained that nitrosamine impurities can arise during manufacturing or form gradually during storage. Active packaging solutions combining scavenger matrices with reaction suppressors can significantly reduce these risks, transforming packaging into an active chemical control system that protects product stability throughout its lifecycle.

Chemical safety considerations extended to rubber stoppers, where Nitin Khaladkar, Head R&D – Rubber Stopper, Bharat Rubber Works, described how vulcanisation chemistry and accelerator choices can generate amines contributing to nitrosamine formation. Laminated stopper technologies and risk-based extractables studies aligned with ICH M7 provide practical mitigation pathways, reinforcing that risk management begins at the design and material selection stage.

Even seemingly peripheral components, such as printing inks, carry critical implications for product safety. Jatin Takkar, Head – Product Safety and Regulatory, Siegwerk India, highlighted how migration risks through diffusion, set-off, or gas-phase transfer can compromise product integrity. Ensuring safety requires cross functional alignment, clear verification protocols, and proactive collaboration between brand owners, ink suppliers, and regulatory teams. 

The conversation then shifted to innovation and technology solutions. Anil Mittal, MD, Alutech Packaging, introduced ActivePac™, a system that actively controls moisture and oxygen to protect sensitive formulations. By reducing blister failures, odor issues, and overages while maintaining low headspace humidity, it extends shelf life by two to five times.

Building on this, Vijaya Kumar K, Regional Manager – South, Sun Teknovation, showcased AI-driven inspection and Track & Trace solutions designed to handle real-world manufacturing variability. These systems streamline aggregation, reduce scan times, and integrate anti-tamper mechanisms seamlessly.

Shivashankar Nagarajan, Director, Sandilyam Automation Systems, highlighted the importance of continuous barcode verification from design to production to safeguard traceability, audit readiness, and regulatory compliance.

Taken together, these sessions formed a cohesive narrative. Serialisation discipline, combination product validation, nitrosamine mitigation, stopper chemistry, sustainable materials, and AI-driven traceability are interconnected layers within a complex packaging ecosystem. Speakers emphasised that emerging risks, regulatory evolution, and practical mitigation strategies must be addressed through stronger design choices, better validation, and tighter cross functional alignment. 

PPL 2026 underscored how partnerships, technical expertise, and proactive innovation are essential to building robust, compliant, and futureready packaging systems that deliver tangible value to patients and the pharma industry.