Optimizing Product Packaging and Oral Drug Delivery with Stick Packs

Brent Moody- Director, Scientific Advisory Services, Catalent; Yannick Hildebrandt- Product Development Laboratory Manager, Catalent

In the ever-evolving world of pharmaceutical science, innovation in drug delivery systems often drives improvements in patient adherence, therapeutic efficacy, and manufacturing efficiency. One such innovation gaining momentum is stick pack technology, a flexible single-use packaging format. It offers an alternative approach to delivering oral dosage forms that can better align with patient needs and preferences.

While common in consumer health and nutritional products, stick packs have entered the pharmaceutical mainstream. This shift is not just convenience-driven; it represents a deeper transformation in how we approach patient-centric formulation, precision dosing, and scalable packaging in a regulated landscape.

Designed for Patients, Optimized for Dosing

Stick packs are typically composed of multi-layer laminates such as PET, aluminum, and polyethylene and can contain a wide range of oral dosage forms, including powders, granules, multi-particulates, mini tablets, and even liquids.

Recent market studies reveal a significant trend: a substantial volume of non-sterile oral powder was dispensed globally last year, the majority still packaged in bottles. Increasingly, however, we are seeing pharmaceutical developers adopt flexible stick packs as a primary packaging solution for both new and legacy products.

This movement is driven by three converging priorities: improving patient experience, enhancing formulation flexibility, and optimizing global manufacturing and distribution.

At the core of the stick pack’s appeal is its alignment with patient-centered drug development. For populations with swallowing difficulties, such as pediatric and geriatric patients, stick packs provide a non-solid oral delivery format that is both familiar and easy to administer. Caregivers can open a stick pack and mix the contents into food or liquids, offering both palatability and dosing flexibility.

Furthermore, this format accommodates weight-based or age-based dosing strategies, which are increasingly mandated in pediatric development pathways by global regulatory agencies. The simplicity of stick packs supports improved adherence, especially for long-term therapies or multi-drug regimens.

Enabling Advanced Formulation Technologies

From a formulation science standpoint, stick packs provide a highly adaptable platform for the development and delivery of complex oral drug products. Their compatibility with amorphous solid dispersions, including spray-dried powder and hot-melt extruded formulations, enables pharmaceutical scientists to address the long-standing challenge of poor aqueous solubility in many APIs. By facilitating the incorporation of these solubility-enhancing technologies into a patient-friendly, unit-dose format, stick packs offer an effective strategy for improving bioavailability and therapeutic consistency.

Stick packs are also well-suited for modified release delivery systems. Multiparticulate formulations coated with pH-sensitive or time-dependent polymers can be finely tuned to achieve delayed, extended, or pulsatile release profiles, creating new possibilities for chronotherapeutics and once-daily dosing regimens.

Taste masking, a key consideration for pediatric and geriatric populations, is also readily achieved within this format using flavoring agents or functional coatings that minimize bitterness and enhance palatability. This formulation flexibility allows developers to align more effectively with evolving regulatory requirements, address diverse patient needs, and differentiate products in competitive therapeutic markets.

Precision Dosing Meets Scalable Manufacturing

Ensuring reliable dosing in stick pack manufacturing is essential, not just for regulatory compliance, but also for delivering consistent product performance. Stick pack production requires robust engineering and process science to ensure consistent dosing accuracy across diverse formulations and oral dosage formats. To achieve this, Catalent utilizes three primary dosing systems, each tailored to handle different material properties:

1. Auger Dosing System: Ideal for cohesive or free-flowing powders, this system ensures precise dosing by controlling flow through a rotating screw mechanism.

2.  Slider Dosing System: Best suited for granules and well-flowing powders, it uses a volume-based approach to deliver consistent doses with high efficiency.

3. Mini Tablet Dosing System: Designed for mini tablet formulations, this system uses optical sensors to count individual tablets, ensuring exact unit doses every time.

Each system’s effectiveness is driven by a deep understanding of critical material attributes like particle size distribution, particle shape, permeability, and compressibility, which are quantified through advanced analytical techniques such as powder rheometry. This data-driven approach ensures tight fill-weight control and high throughput, both essential in Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) environments.

Beyond dosing, Catalent also addresses user safety and convenience through packaging features like laser-scored perforations that combine child-resistance with easy opening. These enhancements ensure not only compliance with safety regulations but also improved patient and caregiver experience.

Global Network to Support Scale and Speed

Meeting the pace of global demand requires a site network that is not only scalable but also strategically distributed across key geographies. Catalent offers stick pack capabilities in Schorndorf (Germany), Winchester (KY, USA), nd Greenville (NC, USA). These capabilities are co-located with our GMP fill product manufacturing, so pharmaceutical fill products can be manufactured and packaged in stick packs at the same locations. This integration allows clients to develop, manufacture, and package stick pack products under one roof, streamlining timelines and reducing tech transfer risk. Our sites are particularly well-positioned to support modified release and pediatric-focused development, areas where stick pack technology offers unique advantages.

Opportunity for Innovation

Stick pack technology represents a significant opportunity in pharmaceutical packaging and drug delivery. Its numerous benefits, from patient-friendly design to innovative formulation possibilities, make it an increasingly attractive option for pharmaceutical innovators. As the industry continues to evolve, stick packs are likely to play a crucial role in shaping the future of oral drug delivery, offering improved convenience, compliance, and efficacy for patients worldwide.