OTC Pharmaceutical products require more from their labels than many other consumer products. The market for over-the-counter pharmaceuticals has grown significantly over the last several years, and this upward trend is not showing any signs of slowing down. According to Mordor Intelligence, the industry is expected to grow at a 6.65% CAGR over the forecast period of 2022-2027. The category of OTC drugs is a large one, including items from cold and fever medications to topical analgesics.

With the increasing demand for and sales of OTC pharmaceuticals, companies in this sector are finding themselves with greater and new demands for packaging. According to Label and Narrow Web, growth will be most dramatic in countries such as China and India where companies are currently diversifying into the industry in a big way, but the United States will remain the largest market based on volume and mix of drug shipment.

Although nearly all industries have their own specific concerns with packaging, OTC drug companies may face even more perplexing questions when it comes to creating the right label because of all the regulatory requirements and consumer concerns regarding health products.

One of our areas of expertise at Dion Label Printing is OTC pharmaceutical labels and packaging. Unique from other labels, OTC pharmaceutical labels are especially dependent upon quality, accuracy, and detailed documentation. We are a full-service label printer and offer custom solutions for our OTC pharmaceutical partners, but here are three of the most popular features to solve the unique needs of these brands and products: extended content labels, built-in security options, and on-brand, GMI Certified colors.

1. Extended Content

Extended content labels, also known as ECLs and expanded content labels, are extremely effective tools for OTC pharmaceutical companies. While traditional labels are printed on one side of a piece of material, ECLs give you more space for a wide variety of information and can free space up on the front of your label for branding and essential product information.

With so much regulatory information to include, extended content labels are an excellent solution for OTC Pharmaceutical manufacturers. Dion Label Printing offers a variety of extended content labels including vial labels which are perfect for very small containers, peel back labels which provide one panel of extra print space, and booklet labels which we can customize to include several extra panels. Find which ECL is right for your OTC pharma product here.

2. Built-In Security

With OTC pharmaceuticals, counterfeiting and other safety concerns are often center stage when it comes to product packaging, and Dion has the tools and knowledge to create packaging to assuage any worries about safety and legitimacy. We can provide tamper-evident labels and tamper-proof shrink sleeves.

We also offer microtext, also known as microprinting, as one way to add anti-counterfeiting features without high added cost. Another security feature that adds very low cost to a label is using black light additives in your labels as a security check. We can add an optical brightener additive into coatings that indicates if the label is counterfeit or not when put under a black light. Other security features including clear and foil seals are also available. Learn more about our security options here.

3. On-Brand Color

Dion Label Printing is GMI-Certified (Graphic Measure International) for both digital and flexographic printing. In fact, we’re the first printer in the nation to be GMI-Certified Platinum for both methods. This certification helps measure color standards through the label printing process while at our facility. It also provides control on retail shelves to ensure uniformity. Some of the brands we are certified GMI printers for include CVS, Target, Walgreens, and Home Depot.

With intense competition for OTC pharmaceutical products and the tendency of consumers to trust brands they know and recognize, the importance of color consistency on labels and packaging really can’t be understated. What’s more, if an OTC pharmaceutical label is not printed with perfect registration and color, a customer is unlikely to purchase it since it will appear to be of substandard quality. Our GMI Certification and our extensive quality control process means that you will never have to worry about the quality of your labels or packaging.

No matter what type of OTC pharma product you produce, Dion Label Printing has the label and packaging solutions to solve the challenges you face. If you’d like to see samples of our impeccable work for yourself, request a free sample packet here.