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The pharmaceutical packaging materials market comprises the following segments: plastic, glass, and others, which includes aluminum, rubber, and paper. By end-product type, the market has been divided into oral drugs, drops and sprays, topical medicines and suppositories, and injectables.

Packaging plays a pivotal role in the pharmaceutical industry in protecting and maintaining drug stability during storage, transportation, and usage. While pharmaceutical packaging materials are mainly segregated into primary, secondary, and tertiary levels, primary packaging is of utmost significance, as it comes in direct contact of the drug. In this regard, the pharmaceutical industry has been witnessing increasing demand for effective primary packaging materials based on polymer, glass, aluminum, rubber, and paper (such as bottles, blister and strip packs, ampoules and vials, prefilled syringes, cartridges, tubes, canisters, caps and closures, and sachets) that can prevent drug contamination and increase patient compliance.

Both by value and volume, plastic packaging materials accounted for the largest share in the global pharmaceutical packaging materials market in 2020 and are expected to retain their dominance during the forecast period. This is largely due to increasing consumption of commodity thermoplastics such as Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC), Polyolefins (PO), and Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) for cost-effective packaging of various Over-the-counter (OTC) drugs. Plastic packages are extremely lightweight, cost effective, inert, flexible, resistance to breakage, and offer easier handling, storage and transportation of drugs compared to conventional packaging materials. Moreover, plastics can be easily molded into varied shapes and also offer a wide range of attractive packaging options for simpler identification of drugs. Increasing demand for OTC drugs is one of the main driving factors for plastic-based pharma packaging materials worldwide. Additionally, 3D printing technology is anticipated to gradually revolutionize the pharmaceutical plastic packaging sector in the future in terms of rapid prototyping, high flexibility of design, and reduced development time frame.