With the demand for weight loss drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy, the need for biologics in the United States is at an all-time high. Now, it’s time to investigate how manufacturers and OEMs can utilize existing equipment to efficiently distribute these biologics to consumers.
Packaging OEM spoke with two experts in the industry from Coesia, sales director AJ Lee, and strategic business unit manager Stephen Robinson, to explain biologics, the cultural reasoning behind their push, and how the packaging line can keep up with demand — now and in the future.
What are biologics?
Biologics are a class of drugs that most often come in injectable formats, like a prefilled syringe. This format for this drug application is on the rise. In 2023, the FDA approved 55 new drugs for the US market, 17 of which were biologics. Over the past five years, the FDA has approved an average of 14 new biologics each year, with biologics making up an average of 28% of new drugs approved in that timeframe. Read more about solving prefilled syringe challenges with technology.
What’s behind their growth?
Behind biologics are GLP-1 drugs, also known as glucagon-like peptide-1, which is a hormone that helps control blood sugar and weight. Some examples of GLP-1 receptor agonists include the drugs behind Ozempic and Adlyxin.
“The peptide drug development is coming on fast, and I think it’s breaking faster than most people anticipated or certainly were prepared for,” said Lee.
The GLP-1 class of drugs has been a key driver of prefilled syringe growth. Between 2019 to 2023, the US experienced a 700% increase in the number of patients taking GLP-1 drugs specifically for weight management.
“Once the release of these drugs into the weight-loss space, given the demand for that kind of pharmaceutical product, the growth numbers are unreal,” said Lee.
Culture shifts
Changes in American culture and ideologies are behind the weight loss biologics push, with the belief that people are less concerned about injecting themselves as they were 5 to 10 years ago. The product also offers flexibility, as consumers can inject themselves at home, instead of having to make an appointment at a doctor’s office or clinic.
“We’re seeing a path where that auto-injection methodology, that drug delivery mechanisms, was kind of the initial release. It’s becoming widely adopted at home,” said Lee.
Adapting existing equipment
To assist in the demand for biologics, Robinson retrofitted existing manufacturing equipment to work in the pharma industry. He used 10 years of experience working on consumer electronics assembly technology to tweak small components, finely adjust them, and ultimately put the machine back together. Through this method, they were able to leverage technology to create pharmaceutical assembling machines (PAM), to fill orders for pharma brands.
“Looking at the market trends, it seemed like a natural fit,” said Robinson.
Machine parts can be adapted, like the auto injector, trays, and conveyers. To keep up with hygienic demands from the pharma industry, quality checks were brought in.
“With our knowledge of some of the regulations needed for handling pharma vials, injectables, quality checks and data batches, we adapted that machine, made it more hygienic and cleaner, easy to access with our mechanisms to really make it an easy fit for that assembler into the pharma world,” said Robinson.
OEMs can adapt the PAM machines as needed and can add more modules such as electronic components and sensors.
Keeping up with demand
With the surge in consumer popularity, production for biologics may need to be ramped up at any given moment. Packaging OEM asked the experts how manufacturers can leverage their machinery to keep up with requests.
“We kind of predispositioned the machine to be ready for increased production. Make sure there’s spacing in-between the different modules to ramp up if we need to put new platforms in there to hold the products and move it along,” said Robinson.
Additionally, Lee stated that he’s seeing a large range of deployments across the pharma industry for biologics. Some companies need to distribute 300 products a minute on the line, while others are focusing on smaller batches, such as 30 at a time, either way manufacturers need the equipment to adapt to their demand.
“While on the weight-loss side, it is as fast as you can make it right now,” said Lee, noting that many OEMs are having to design machines that can handle different batches because pharma companies are saying they can’t have a 300-a-minute dedicated cartoning line because that’s not how this product is going to get to market.
No matter what the needed output, pharma manufacturers are leveraging this updated technology to keep up consumer need.
“It’s one of these situations where the technology is really meeting the demand on that weight-loss drug category in a way that more traditional methods probably couldn’t of,” said Lee.
Thinking about the future
With the increasing demand for biologics, it’s very possible that in the future equipment would need to be adjusted or changed to meet both the need of the product and the consumer.
Because of this, Robinson details how he’s able to keep equipment nimble, to accommodate the small footprint of pharma factories, while still offering the top-of-the-line equipment.
“These pharma industry facilities don’t usually have a lot of space. When you bring in a new technology, or a new product in the market, typically it’s hard to find a way to bring those into your current facility,” said Robinson.
Webinar
For more on how manufacturers can keep up with the demand for biologics, view the entire Packaging OEM webinar “The Impact of GLP-1 on Pharma Packaging” for free, and on-demand, click here to join.
