Originally Published PMPN May 2001
Tubes can successfully communicate product and brand information, long after the secondary package is discarded.
Daphne Allen, Editor
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| Unit-of-use tubes, like these from Margo, are available in a wide range of colors and can bear graphics and text. Photographer: Claude-Simon Langlois. |
Tubes no longer need to take on the competition lying down. Thanks to recent updates in construction, pharmaceutical tubes can carry more graphics and more marketing and regulatory text than ever before, reducing their dependence upon secondary packaging.
While not every pharmaceutical product can get away with only a tube and no carton or insert, most can rely upon the tube for communicating brand identity and important instructions and warnings, long after the carton is discarded. And a few products may be able to go to market without any secondary packaging at all.
Using the tube as the sole marketing vehicle has its economic advantages. "You can avoid the cost of secondary packaging and the associated labor," says Howard Thau, president of Sonic Packaging (Westwood, NJ), a contract packaging firm. "Great graphics and colors allow the tube to serve as both the primary and secondary package."
Even if you need secondary packaging to meet regulatory requirements, your marketing efforts shouldn't stop at the carton. "We're seeing that our pharmaceutical customers are placing greater emphasis on overall package branding," explains Kyle Vlasak of Thatcher Tubes (Woodstock, IL).
To help drug manufacturers broadcast their brands with tubes, suppliers offer new material combinations, seamless constructions, high-quality graphics and printing, and other flashy features. Even sensitive drug products can sizzle, for high-barrier tubes are also taking on a high-end look. And unit-of-use tubes are following suit, appearing in a variety of colors with eye-catching logos and text.
HIGH BARRIER, HIGH INTENSITY
The tubes of yesteryear were pretty barren—in two colors, if you were lucky, and in a material that, once squeezed, obscured any text. Perhaps the thought was that consumers would hold onto any carton or other secondary packaging for product information. However, the typical consumer stores pharmaceutical tubes in medicine cabinets or bathroom drawers and discards any secondary packaging, so any important indications or warnings are probably discarded, too.
Drug product packagers no longer have to settle for such minimalism— tubes can now do more than just hold and deliver ointment. Advances in construction now enable the tube to display product information clearly and memorably, long after the tube is opened.
Recently tackled is the problem of creating a high-barrier tube that remains legible throughout product use. Foil, the most common barrier material, does not have the shape memory of plastic, so foil tubes have a tendency to crinkle during repeated dispensing. "Aluminum loses its newness as soon as you touch it," says Vlasak.
Consequently, suppliers like Thatcher went in search of a high-barrier construction that maintained its original shape, and found it in a polyethylene and ethyl-vinyl-alcohol (LDPE or HDPE and EVOH) combination. "It's a plastic tube with a full barrier, and the benefit is that plastic holds its shape," he explains.
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| Plastic tubes can be decorated at reasonable costs. Photo courtesy Margo. |
Michael Hoard, director of marketing for Cebal Americas (Norwalk, CT), which also offers several EVOH-barrier tubes, says that drug firms are showing interest in the constructions. "There is movement from the foil-laminated tube to the nonfoil tube for consumer appeal. The EVOH-containing laminates can be formed similarly to the foil laminates by sandwiching together various layers of plastic resins and films, or they can be made in a single coextrusion process."
Cebal recently worked with Pfizer to repackage BenGay in the new tube. Printed in either red, blue, yellow, or green, the new tubes have "higher-profile graphics and more interesting use of colors," says Hoard.
Another barrier material to consider is ceramic. In addition to tubes with an EVOH barrier, Hoffman NeoPac AG (Bern, Switzerland, and Holmdel, NJ) offers tubes with a ceramic barrier, which is impervious to gas and moisture and resists chemicals.
PALETTE-ABLE PLASTIC
In addition to maintaining its shape over time, plastic may also carry more text and colors than the traditional foil-based tube. For instance, because it can be extruded, plastic lends itself nicely to a seamless construction that can be used for drug products that do not require a barrier material. With no seam, the extruded tube can be colored and printed around its entire diameter.
NeoPac has also made 360° printing a reality for laminated tubes. By placing the seam on the inside of the tube and adding an additional overlay of polyethylene, the side seam is virtually invisible. Such a seamless construction enables the tube to carry text, graphics, and colors continuously around its body. "The normal laminated tube cannot be decorated 360°," explains Frank Wolpert, a packaging consultant and U.S. agent for NeoPac.
Plastic can also be colored and printed using a variety of techniques. "Offset printing is still the most typical for pharmaceutical tubes, but manufacturers are slowly taking baby steps and adding more color to their packaging," says Vlasak.
Those baby steps may include the use of hot stamping, which Cebal's Hoard calls "more glitzy. It is better able to catch the consumer's eye and helps to differentiate products from one another on the shelf." For instance, through the use of hot foil stamping, NeoPac can add gold, silver, and bronze elements to the tube, says Wolpert.
Silk-screening is also an option. NeoPac offers it in up to three colors in surface, line, or half-tone print. According to the Web site of Easthampton, MA–based Tubed Products Inc., "half-tone silk screening [offers] remarkable detail that gives a subtle look and feel to a tube dispensing system."
Another way plastic can help create a tantalizing tube is through pigmentation. Traditionally, the outer layer of polyethylene in laminated tubes is white. But Hoard says that some companies that market cosmeceuticals–cosmetic products with pharmaceutical-like ingredients–are experimenting with pigmented or colored laminates, or even outer layers with no added color. Johnson & Johnson's RoC Div. recently chose a Cebal tube with no white pigment added to the outer polyethylene layer for its Retinol antiwrinkle treatment product. "It has the shiny look of a metal tube, but it is a laminated tube," Hoard explains.
Thatcher offers similar colored and pigmented tubes, ranging in colors from primary to iridescent to metallic. NeoPac offers varnish coatings in glossy, satin, or matte finishes.
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| One of Pfizer's new BenGay tubes, which uses the same colors as its carton. Tube courtesy Cebal Americas. |
When using the tube as both the primary and secondary package, Sonic Packaging's Thau says that other industries are making use of pressure-sensitive labels affixed to the tubes. "We just packaged an automotive product in a tube with a seven-color label, and the company eliminated the need for secondary packaging," he explains. "Pharmaceutical companies could do the same thing." He also sees the use of expandable labels as another option for extending the labeling space of the tube.
Vlasak, however, doesn't agree. "Accordion-style labels are not solving the space problem. Cartons are typically cheaper."
UNIT-OF-USE TUBES
Demand for prepackaged doses is rising, and for good reason–unit-of-use packages help consumers deliver the right amount of a drug and track such delivery. But the small size of the packages makes it nearly impossible to include all the necessary marketing and regulatory information. "The problem with unit-of-use tubes is that there isn't a lot of printing area," says Thau. "Companies still need to rely on secondary packaging for instructions, warnings, and precautions. About all you can do is identify the product."
Instead of trying to squeeze a lot of information onto unit-of-use packages, companies are carrying over brand elements like colors and logos to the smaller packages. For instance, companies are taking the color of their brands and extending it to unit-of-use tubes and sample tubes, says Cliff Miller, president of Andrew M. Martin Company, Inc. (Gardena, CA).
Francesca Fazzolari, president of James Alexander Corp. (Blairstown, NJ), agrees that unit-of-use tubes don't have room for a lot of text. "On a 0.5-ml tube, you have only about 1 sq in. of printing space. Companies tend to put just logos and some text." She adds that to make her firm's plastic unit-dose dispensing systems more attractive to consumers, they can add color to the plastic and they can print in a variety of colors.
Similarly, Unicep Packaging Inc. (Sandpoint, ID) offers its MicroDose one-piece LDPE dispenser in red, blue, or green, as well as in clear or custom colors. The unit-dose tubes can also be printed using ink-jet methods. "We use a surface treatment that adds permanence to the print, which otherwise is a challenge with LDPE. This is the only labeling option for our smallest (0.2ml) dispensers," explains Steve Dilts, director of sales for Unicep. "We can also engrave a logo in the mold to create a raised emboss."
To help support companies' marketing efforts, Unicep also creates custom shapes. "For instance, if we are packaging a small sample of a full-size bottle, we can create a dispenser shape that mimics the bottle, even including colors. This can also help tie unit-dose versions of a product to the rest of the multidose packaging," Dilts adds.
Margo (Montreal), an Alcan Packaging company, which produces unit-of-use tubes, has found a way to keep decorating costs down. "We have installed high-speed tube printers capable of printing 150 tubes per minute," explains Greg Shaw, Margo's director of business development, contract packaging.
CREATING A LASTING MESSAGE
Even if your product can't shed its secondary packaging, it should still be housed in as attractive a primary package as possible. After all, the tube will be the package handled by consumers throughout the life of the product. As Thatcher's Vlasak says, drug packagers should be "looking for brand identity for the life of the package."
Copyright ©2001 Pharmaceutical & Medical Packaging News
