The RFQ Email Template for Pharma and Cosmetics Packaging: What Suppliers Need to Quote Accurately

A pharma buyer sends an RFQ for 50ml OTC syrup bottles. The quote comes back on time and on budget. But it has no child-resistant closure. The RFQ never said the product was a regulated drug, not a cosmetic. The batch gets reworked before it can ship.

A cosmetics buyer sends an RFQ for a 500ml pump bottle for shampoo. Three suppliers quote it: $0.31, $0.42, $0.58. None of them are wrong. The RFQ never specified the neck finish, the pump dosage, or the resin grade, so each supplier filled the gap with a different default. That is not three quotes for one bottle. That is three quotes for three different bottles that happen to share a photo.

Both mistakes trace to the same root cause. The RFQ looked complete. It wasn't specific enough for the supplier to quote your actual bottle, instead of their default one.

An RFQ for pharma or cosmetics packaging needs 11 shared fields to get an accurate, comparable quote. The table below covers all 11. Pharma buyers add a few fields on top, covered first below. Don't want to build the email from scratch? The free copy-paste template further down covers all 11 fields, and is also available as a download.

This template covers primary packaging, the bottle, jar, tube, or vial that directly holds the product. If you also need the printed box it ships in, a mono carton for a pharma bottle or a branded outer for a cosmetics SKU, that is secondary packaging. It is a different manufacturing process (carton printing and die-cutting, not injection molding), sourced from a different type of supplier.

A few signs your RFQ is about to come back vague, or wrong:

• You have not said whether the product is a regulated drug or a cosmetic, so the closure quoted may not be compliant.
• You wrote "standard cap" instead of a neck finish size.
• You said "screen printed" without a color count or coverage area.
• You have a target price but no realistic order quantity to anchor it.
• You have not said whether the formula has been tested against the container material.

If two or more of these are true, use the checklist below before you send the next round.

The 11 fields, and what each one actually controls

1. Container type and material. Bottle, jar, tube, compact, dropper, or vial, and the resin or material behind it. Glass is standard for many liquid pharma formulations (inertness) and for perfume and premium skincare. PET is the standard clear plastic. PETG is the step up for prestige skincare (better clarity and impact resistance). HDPE is common for shampoo and lotion, chosen for chemical resistance to surfactant-based formulas.

If recycled content matters, specify a percentage. Virgin and PCR (post-consumer recycled) resin at 25 or 50 percent are both commonly available. For pharma, material compliance with USP (United States Pharmacopeia) <661.1>/<661.2> is a separate requirement, covered below, not implied by a resin name alone.

2. Capacity. The fill volume in ml or g, not the bottle size. A 500ml bottle rarely holds exactly 500ml once headspace is accounted for.

3. Neck finish and closure type. The most-skipped field, and the one that breaks the quote. Neck finish is written as two numbers, for example 24/410. The first number is the throat diameter in millimeters. The second is a code for thread and finish style.

Common ranges run 18/410 to 18/415 (small skincare), 20/410 to 20/415 (medium creams and gels), and 24/410 to 24/415 (body lotion and haircare). Foaming pumps standardize on 42/410, not interchangeable with a standard lotion pump neck. State the closure explicitly. Options include flip-top, disc-top, lotion pump, foamer pump, airless pump, dropper, and, for a regulated pharma product, a child-resistant closure, covered below.

4. Pump dosage, if using a pump. Standard lotion pumps dispense roughly 0.5 to 2.0 ml per stroke. Treatment and serum pumps run lower, down to about 0.2 ml. Foaming pumps output around 0.4cc of foam per press. Flag unusual viscosity or suspended particles. Pump mechanisms are not universal across formulas.

5. Decoration method and color match. Screen printing (direct, durable, bold) and hot stamping (foil under heat and pressure) are the common direct-decoration methods. Shrink sleeves wrap the full container in one high-resolution print. Pressure-sensitive labels are the flexible option. Name the method, color count, and Pantone reference if you have one. "Screen printed, 2 colors, Pantone 2965 C and white" is quotable. "Screen printed" is not.

6. Decoration coverage area. Full wrap, front panel only, cap only. Attach artwork with placement marked, even a rough mockup.

7. Quantity and annual volume estimate. State the initial order and, if known, estimated annual volume. MOQs (minimum order quantities) vary widely. Stock packaging often starts around 100 to 500 units. Custom packaging commonly sits in the low thousands. Established suppliers may require 5,000 or more. These are general ranges. Confirm per supplier. (D2C buyers, see the FAQ below on why packaging MOQ often runs higher than your formula MOQ.)

8. Target price. Optional. Comparable only when a quantity is attached.

9. Ship-to location and delivery date. Country or port, and the date you need product landed, not shipped. These let a supplier confirm their lead time actually works for your timeline, instead of just saying yes. If the destination market has its own labeling, language, or compliance marks (recycling symbols, mandated warnings), state the market explicitly. This affects the decoration in field 5, not just logistics.

10. Testing requirements. Covered in detail below, pharma first, then the cosmetics baseline.

11. Sample approval. State whether you require a pre-production physical sample and what has to pass. A rendered mockup or an AI-generated product image cannot show whether a pump primes correctly or a cap seal holds under transit vibration. It is not a substitute for a physical sample against your actual formula.

Pharma packaging: what to add on top of the 11 fields

The 11 fields above still apply. Pharma buyers add these, on top, not instead:

Child-resistant closures. In the US, child resistance under 16 CFR (Code of Federal Regulations) 1700 is triggered by oral administration, not by "regulated drug" status alone. Oral prescription drugs and specified OTC drugs listed at 16 CFR 1700.14 require it, tested to be effective against children under five while remaining usable by adults. Topical, ophthalmic, and other non-oral formulations are handled case by case, not blanket-required.

Confirm your product's category before assuming either way, and specify the closure explicitly. It is a distinct closure type, not an option on a standard cosmetics closure.

Container-closure material compliance. As of 1 December 2025, USP <661> was reorganized into two chapters. USP <661.1> covers the plastic material of construction. USP <661.2> covers the finished packaging system as used with the product. The original <661> is no longer the operative standard.

A cosmetics-grade HDPE bottle is not automatically compliant with either chapter. USP <671> and USP <1671> separately cover container permeation testing and container-closure system selection. Ask suppliers for documentation against the current chapters, not the retired one.

Extractables and leachables testing. The compatibility testing below still applies, but pharma formulations typically require E&L testing on top. This means identifying and quantifying any chemical that migrates from the pac
kaging into the drug product over shelf life, not just a visual check.

Tamper-evidence. For OTC drug products in the US, tamper-evident packaging is a federal requirement under 21 CFR 211.132, not an upsell.

What testing to require (cosmetics baseline)

Compatibility testing is often skipped, because it takes weeks and the sample already looked fine. It also fails silently. A bottle that looks correct on delivery can still be reacting with the formula in ways that show up months later, as clouding, brittleness, or a seal that no longer holds.

Pharma, haircare, and makeup: same checklist, different defaults

The 11 fields apply across all three. What changes is which answers are typical. For pharma, a few things get added on top.

Pharma packaging usually means glass or pharma-grade plastic chosen for inertness and documented compliance, a child-resistant closure where the product is a regulated drug, and the additional testing above. Decoration is typically a printed label carrying required regulatory information, not a brand-driven design exercise.

Haircare packaging usually means larger fill volumes (200ml to 1000ml is common), chemical-resistant material (HDPE, because surfactant-based formulas are harder on plastics than most skincare formulas), and closures built for repeated one-handed use in a wet environment. Think disc-top, flip-top, lotion, or foaming pumps.

Makeup packaging usually means smaller fill volumes, more decoration-intensive containers (compacts and jars are often the product's entire shelf presence), and dispensing mechanisms that protect against air exposure, like airless pumps and droppers. Many makeup and treatment formulas oxidize faster than most haircare formulas do.

Use the 11-field RFQ as the starting point for all three. Adjust the defaults. For pharma, add the fields above. The structure does not change.

Before you press send

The 11 fields cover what to specify. These five catch the mistakes that slip through even when all 11 fields are filled in:

• The drawing and the artwork file attached are the current revision, not an earlier one still sitting in the same email thread.
• The neck finish specified actually matches the closure or pump specified, not two different suppliers' defaults copied into one email.
• The Pantone reference, if any, is in the RFQ text itself, not only on the attached artwork a supplier might not open closely.
• The quantity in the RFQ body matches the quantity on any attached PO draft or spec sheet.
• The delivery date is landed, not shipped, and matches what you actually need, not a placeholder date from a template.

These are attachment and consistency errors, and they still produce a round of RFQ revisions before a supplier has quoted anything.

The email template

Copy this, fill in the brackets, attach the current drawing and artwork, and send it as-is. Use quotes from at least three suppliers. Pharma buyers should add the add-on block at the end.

Subject: RFQ - [Your Company] - [Pharma/Cosmetics] Packaging - [Product Name]

Hi [Supplier contact name],

We are sourcing [bottle/jar/tube/compact/vial] packaging for [product name
and short description] and would like a quote based on the specification
below.

PRODUCT & CONTAINER
- Container type: [bottle / jar / tube / compact / dropper / vial]
- Capacity: [X ml/g]
- Material: [PET / PETG / HDPE / glass], [virgin / X% PCR]
- Color: [clear / opaque - Pantone if matched]

CLOSURE & DISPENSING
- Neck finish: [e.g. 24/410]
- Closure type: [flip-top / disc-top / lotion pump / foamer pump /
  airless pump / dropper / child-resistant]
- Dosage, if pump: [X ml per stroke]

DECORATION
- Method: [screen printing / hot stamping / shrink sleeve / label]
- Colors: [X colors - Pantone reference if applicable]
- Coverage area: [describe, artwork attached]

QUANTITY & COMMERCIAL
- Initial order quantity: [X units]
- Estimated annual volume: [X units, if known]
- Target unit price: [$X - optional]
- Ship-to: [country/port]
- Target delivery date: [date, landed not shipped]

TESTING & SAMPLES
- Compatibility testing required: [yes/no - formula details attached if yes]
- Closure torque test (ASTM D2063): [required/optional]
- Drop test (ASTM D5276): [required/optional]
- Pre-production sample required: [yes/no]

Please confirm MOQ, tooling cost and lead time if a new mold or die is
required, production lead time, and sample lead time.

We are requesting quotes from a small number of suppliers and will confirm
by [date].

[Your name]
[Company]

What to expect back

A supplier quoting this properly confirms MOQ, tooling cost, production lead time, and sample lead time as separate numbers, not one bundled figure. Sampling commonly takes 3 to 7 days once specifications are locked, longer for custom tooling. Production lead time is often cited around 4 weeks once artwork and structure are confirmed, with tooling for a new mold adding separate, highly variable time. Treat these as planning ranges to confirm per supplier, not commitments. A supplier who answers "4 to 6 weeks for everything" on a request that included custom tooling is quoting a guess, not a schedule.

A complete quote also lists any assumption the supplier made to fill a gap you left open, for example "assumed 24/410 neck finish" or "assumed virgin PET." If a quote lists none, ask directly whether any were made rather than assuming there weren't. This is the same gap the opening example ran into, just caught before the order ships instead of after.

See also

• How to Write an RFQ That Gets Serious Supplier Responses - the general 12-field framework this template specializes for pharma and cosmetics packaging
• Sourcing Folding Cartons and Mono Cartons in India - the secondary-packaging RFQ (the box, not the bottle)
• How to Verify a Supplier in India - verify the supplier before the first bulk order, not just the quote
• Managing RFQs for Prototype Sourcing From Contract Manufacturers - if your packaging RFQ involves custom mold or tooling development, the same discipline applies to the trial run before it moves to production.