Pharmaceutical Bottle Cap

What Type of Pharmaceutical Bottle Cap is Suitable for Your Products?

Pharmaceutical bottle caps or closures are used to protect a product during production, carriage, and display until the product is consumed by the end-user. The ones used in the pharmacy are composed (in substantial portion or the whole amount) of plastic materials that contain pharmaceutical formulations

They must be economical and also provide protection against physical, mechanical and chemical hazards, climatic or biological conditions that could lead to or cause product deterioration. 


The following are the qualities of good pharmaceutical bottle caps:

  • They should be air-tight and sealed.
  • Bottle caps must be manufactured and assembled in clean-room environments to meet safety requirements.
  • They should assist in patient compliance.
  • They should have an aesthetically acceptable design.

 

There are many different types of bottle caps which all perform different functions. Some common types of closures include:

  1. The CT (continuous thread closures) cap is a basic closure packaging material that can be easily sealed and resealed.
  2. Disc top caps allow the user to dispense content without the need to remove the cap.
  3. CRC (child-resistant) closures or caps are child-resistant closures that prevent children from opening the content.
  4. Pumps and sprayers allow the user to dispense an equal amount of high viscosity product with each use.

 

To know what type of pharmaceutical bottle cap is suitable for your product, you first need to know the types of packaging materials. Basically, there are primary and secondary packages.

MATERIALTYPESEXAMPLES
GlassPrimaryAmpoule, metric medical bottle, vial
CardboardSecondaryBox to contain primary package
PlasticPrimaryDropper bottle, vial, infusion fluid container, ampoule
PaperSecondaryPatients information leaflet, labels
CardboardSecondaryBox to contain primary pack

However, pharmaceutical bottle caps are commonly used (over glass containers) as packaging materials for most types of pharmaceutical dosage forms due to the several advantages they possess. For one, plastics ensure adequate stability of the product throughout the shelf life.

The functions of pharmaceutical bottle cap packaging include:

  • Protective function – This ensures protecting the contents from various forms of damages, loss and theft. The cap also ensures protection against climatic conditions, such as rainfall, humidity, temperature etc. The inward protective function retains the utility value of the packaged goods. Additional packaging measures may be fabricated against precipitation and solar radiation.
  • Storage function – The pharmaceutical bottle cap should be stored properly before packaging to preserve the quality of the material and content.
  • Loading and transport functions – Caps used in pharmaceutical purposes are designed to withstand the many different static and dynamic forces which it will encounter during transport, handling, and storage operations.
  • Identification – Each bottle cap must identify the manufacturer of the product.

How do you know what sort of bottle cap to use? It is essential to consider the following factors before selecting the packaging material for your product.

1. The Product

What kind of product are you manufacturing? You must consider the following during your findings:

  • the physical and chemical characteristics of the drug entity
  • the formulation
  • the recipients
  • route of deterioration of the product
  • type of patient (elderly, adult, teenager, baby, child, infants etc.)
  • packaging style
  • legal requirement

2. The Market

The market channel is very important as well.

Questions on where, when, how and whom it is to be administered to or used by (e.g. doctors, nurses, dentists, patients, etc.) should be considered before packaging.

3. The Distribution System

How will the product be distributed? Is it via wholesale/retail dealership or direct sales? 

Are you using modern transport systems like vehicles, trucks or motorcycles to transport products or less sophisticated transport systems like camels? 

Note that the latter requires additional protection in the absence of intermediate storage facilities. The distribution system should be carefully examined.

4. Manufacturing Facilities

The reliability of the pharmaceutical packaging supplier should be considered. 

The best pharmaceutical packaging suppliers should have extensive experience in this field and a high level of competency.

MH Multipack Sdn Bhd, the first and only Malaysia professional SMART packaging manufacturer, provides one-stop solutions in Smart Packaging System compatible with Industry 4.0, including systems that utilize bottle capping machines

We are the expert in manufacturing fully automatic SMART complete filling line for liquids and powder in any bottling forms. For further information, please feel free to get in touch with our friendly and professional specialists.