Redefining Industrial Design Standards in Pharmaceutical Packaging

Traditional pharmaceutical packaging design has long followed a set of rigid industrial priorities: cost-effectiveness, manufacturing efficiency, and basic functionality. We see a huge opportunity for revolutionizing this approach, to demonstrate that industrial design can simultaneously protect people and planet while meeting all regulatory requirements.

In industrial design, the process involves careful planning, prototyping, and iterative refinement to create products that balance functionality, aesthetics, and manufacturability. This systematic approach ensures that each component serves its intended purpose while maintaining production efficiency.

Elevating Industrial Design Standards

For decades, the pharmaceutical industry has defaulted to amber-orange prescription vials, prioritizing mass production and minimal costs over user experience and environmental impact. These clinical-looking containers, while meeting basic safety requirements, fail to address broader industrial design considerations such as user interaction, environmental sustainability, and aesthetic appeal. As stated by UNEP “We will not recycle our way out of the plastic pollution crisis: we need a systemic transformation to achieve the transition to a circular economy.”

We stand with UNEP and believe industrial design priorities need to adjust to prioritize new materials throughout the pharmaceutical industry to create circular economies at scale.

Engineering Innovation: Beyond Traditional Materials

For us, it all starts with reimagining the core of a product. For example, some bio-based plastics are compostable or biodegradable. Polylactic Acid (PLA), the most well-known and commonly used bioplastic, is compostable in specific industrial composting conditions and is frequently used in plastic foodservice packaging like drink cups, lids and cutlery. Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) and Polyethylene Furanoate (PEF) are additional bio-based polymers that can provide enhanced compostability and performance.

When we took another look at plastic vials to reimagine what kinds of materials could replace the core plastic material, we saw the opportunity to use the medication vial as an entry point; an example. By identifying materials that could replace single use dispensers, we recognized that the exterior of Tully Tube represents a significant advancement in pharmaceutical packaging design. That’s why we chose to use paper, to prove that industrial-scale production can coexist with sophisticated aesthetics and enhanced functionality. Paper offered us the opportunity to create clean lines and thoughtful construction demonstrate how modern industrial design can elevate the healthcare experience.

That’s how we imagined Tully Tube’s paper core design. We aimed to structure it as a breakthrough in pharmaceutical packaging engineering. While traditional industrial design often defaults to plastic for its low cost and ease of manufacture, Parcel Health's innovative use of engineered paper materials achieves multiple design objectives simultaneously: structural integrity, temperature insulation, and environmental sustainability.

This material choice challenges industry assumptions about pharmaceutical packaging requirements, proving that alternative materials can meet or exceed traditional performance metrics while offering additional benefits. Paper provides natural insulation for temperature-sensitive medications, something plastic vials have always struggled to achieve.

Safety Engineering: Meeting and Exceeding Standards

Industrial design in pharmaceutical packaging must prioritize safety above all else. Tully Tube’s proprietary cap exceeds these requirements through innovative engineering that achieves both child-resistance certification and senior-friendly accessibility. This dual achievement demonstrates how thoughtful industrial design can resolve seemingly conflicting requirements.

The cap mechanism represents a significant advancement in safety engineering, providing robust protection while improving usability for older adults – a balance that has long challenged pharmaceutical packaging designers.

Sustainable Manufacturing: A New Industrial Paradigm

Parcel Health's commitment to environmental responsibility extends beyond the product to encompass the entire manufacturing process. Tully Tube's design considers the complete lifecycle of the product, from production efficiency to end-of-life disposal. Its components are designed for easy separation and recycling, setting new standards for sustainable pharmaceutical packaging.

Paper, infinitely beautiful and sustainable

This approach demonstrates how industrial design can incorporate environmental considerations without compromising production efficiency or increasing costs prohibitively. The easy-to-disassemble design facilitates both automated manufacturing and proper disposal.

Meeting Regulatory Requirements Through Innovation

The pharmaceutical industry operates under strict regulatory requirements, which often leads to conservative design choices. The Tully Tube proves that innovation can flourish within these constraints, meeting all necessary safety and stability requirements while introducing significant improvements in sustainability and user experience.

Each aspect of the design has been carefully engineered to comply with pharmaceutical packaging regulations while pushing the boundaries of what's possible in terms of materials and functionality.

Setting New Industry Standards

Parcel Health’s paper prescription pill bottle represents more than just a new product – it's a challenge to the entire pharmaceutical packaging industry to elevate its design standards. By demonstrating that environmentally responsible, user-friendly design can be achieved at an industrial scale, Parcel Health is helping to redefine what's possible in pharmaceutical packaging.

Our compostable and recyclable mailers are an additional packaging offering for our partners

For manufacturers and healthcare providers, the Tully Tube offers a glimpse into the future of pharmaceutical packaging – one where industrial design priorities expand beyond basic functionality to encompass environmental responsibility and enhanced user experience.

Future Implications

As the healthcare industry continues to evolve, Parcel Health intends to lead the way, creating new blueprints for how industrial design can drive innovation in pharmaceutical packaging. By successfully balancing regulatory requirements, manufacturing efficiency, user needs, and environmental responsibility, Parcel Health has created a new standard for what pharmaceutical packaging can achieve at an industrial scale.