Seven Packaging Cost Reduction Strategies Every Pharma and Medtech Manufacturer Should Know

Packaging costs can represent up to 20 percent of a pharmaceutical or medical device company’s total product spend. That is a meaningful number, and it is one that an expert panel from Adept Group believes is leaving significant savings on the table for many manufacturers.

In a recent conversation with Packaging Digest, Adept Group’s leadership team laid out seven concrete strategies for cutting packaging costs without compromising safety, quality, or regulatory compliance. The common thread across all of them is holistic thinking — looking at packaging as an integrated system rather than a series of independent line items.

Why packaging costs are climbing

The starting point is understanding the pressures that have pushed packaging costs higher in recent years. Combination products, where a drug is paired with a delivery device like an autoinjector or inhaler, have introduced additional packaging complexity. Regulatory shifts, including the move away from per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) and pressure to reduce ethylene oxide (EtO) sterilization, are forcing manufacturers to qualify more expensive alternative materials and processes. Tariffs have added another layer.

According to a report by Expana, US packaging costs rose 5 percent year-over-year in August 2025 alone, with much of that increase attributed to tariff pressure. For companies running tight margins on regulated products, that kind of cost increase is hard to absorb.

Strategy 1: Be the packaging component

Rich Hollander, CEO of Rich Hollander Inc. and member of the Adept Group advisory board, recommends that packaging leaders work through the entire packaging process — from design to supply chain to storage — by imagining they are the packaging component itself.

“I might be a really cheap component, but if I’m reducing runtime efficiency by 15 percent because I keep creating jams, then I’m not doing anybody any favors because nobody’s factoring in the wastage on the line,” Hollander says. The same logic applies to over-designed components. Excess cubic size means fewer units per shipper, more pallets, more trucks, and higher logistics costs that nobody factors into the unit price.

Strategy 2: Cut waste to cut spend

Jim Regan, head of pharmaceutical packaging consulting services at Adept Group, recommends a simpler diagnostic. Walk the production floor and look at the reject bins.

“Those are components you’re purchasing and throwing away. They’re not making it out the door as part of a finished good,” Regan says. The waste costs money, drives downtime, requires extra labor, and triggers reorders. The root cause is often design, equipment, or operator training issues that are fixable without capital investment.

Strategy 3: Get back to engineering basics

Jason Lubs, senior leader of medical device packaging engineering at Adept, argues that packaging teams should go back to first principles. Do you understand all the requirements that go into designing the package? Have you defined the right materials to ensure durability, integrity, manufacturability, supply chain, and customer requirements?

“When we do that, then we can design packaging systems right the first time,” Lubs says. For medical devices, that means maintaining the sterile barrier without over-engineering. Safety is non-negotiable, but the design space is often larger than people assume.

Strategy 4: Partner with trusted suppliers

Hollander recounted a case from earlier in his career when a non-incumbent supplier approached his team with a new glass vial. It was hard to break, scratch-resistant, and ran 50 percent faster on their lines than conventional glass. The lesson: the right supplier can change the economics of a packaging component.

The flip side is also true. Companies that treat suppliers as transactional vendors, focused only on year-over-year price negotiation, get exactly the kind of relationship they pay for.

Strategy 5: Tell suppliers what you want

Closely related to strategy 4, this one is about communication. Manufacturers need to find suppliers who are hungry for the business, willing to listen, and willing to invest in technology to develop better packaging.

A common area of waste, Regan noted, is the line item for printed components that have to be written off because they are no longer in compliance. A pharma company might write off $700,000 to $1,000,000 in printed components annually and treat it as normal. It is not normal, and it is not acceptable. Better inventory management, tighter supplier quality programs, and more accurate bills of materials can dramatically reduce those write-offs.

Strategy 6: Simplify to reduce complexity

Costs typically increase with the number of packaging components and the complexity of assembly. Combination products are a particular pressure point. The product itself, the delivery device, the secondary packaging, the tertiary packaging, the shipper — every layer adds components, equipment, and assembly time. Asking how to simplify is often the highest-leverage move available.

Strategy 7: Vertical integration benefits

For many medical device firms, automation and the addition of form-fill-seal capabilities make economic sense. Vertical integration is not just for high-volume commodity devices. Medical design and manufacturing companies can create custom-sized sterile pouches, reduce lead time, save on conversion costs, and avoid delays in customization and printing.

Direct print versus pressure-sensitive labels is one example of a trend that is gaining traction. With advanced vision systems and AI, manufacturers can ensure quality and regulatory compliance without the labor and material overhead of label application.

The bottom line

“There is no product without a package,” Lubs reminds us. For a big pharma or medtech company, 20 percent of total procurement spend flowing through packaging can easily add up to over a billion dollars. Trimming that by 5 percent has a meaningful impact on annual profits.

The seven strategies above share a common premise. Packaging cost reduction is not about squeezing suppliers or substituting cheaper materials. It is about designing better, manufacturing smarter, partnering more deeply, and treating packaging as a system rather than a series of line items. For pharma and medtech manufacturers under margin pressure, that mindset shift may be the highest-return investment of all.