Did You Remember?
Advances in pharmaceutical packaging make it hard to forget to take your medicine.
January 2009 by Chris Mc Loone
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The use of smart technologies in any packaging impacts package printers and converters in a variety of ways. The emergence of brand protection as an important market for package printers is one area that impacts those who print pharmaceutical packaging or labels. Secure waste streams, chain-of-custody techniques, and now printed electronics may mean that before long you’ll be learning yet another technique to employ for your customers.
In the realm of patient compliance—patients taking their medication when they are supposed to—pharmaceutical packaging has gone high tech, using technologies like printed electronics, RFID, and conductive inks to communicate not only with the patient, but also with his or her physician or other authorized healthcare organizations.
Packaging innovations
The following are three examples of pharmaceutical packaging that employ various technologies to make the products smart. They become intelligent by enabling them to communicate in different ways with a medicine’s user, as well as for clinical trials where it is communicating numerous bits of information back to a research team.
• MWV Healthcare Cerepak -Electronic Compliance -Packaging, www.mwv.com
This smart package’s target is the clinical trials market. Cerepak records the date, time, and location of each tablet or pill as it is removed from the package. These data can be quickly downloaded into a computer for analysis by the patient or healthcare provider. The system also enables interaction with the patient—it can record side effects or symptoms, as well as discreetly prompt the patient to take the medication using light, sound, or vibration.
MWV designed Cerepak with several goals in mind: accurately record the date and time each dose is taken; improve data quality and statistical power in clinical trials; help clinicians more accurately determine when a non-responder is actually a non-compliant subject; and provide child resistance as necessary.
Cerepak is the result of a partnership between MWV and Cypack, which integrated its smart technology into the Cerepak package. This allows data to be stored in an electronic module embedded into the packaging. Data can be accessed by a computer and imported into a simple spreadsheet or more complex analytical software. Cerepak uses printed conductive traces to transfer information to and from the package and electronic module, using conductive inks to do so.
When faced with reduced shelf space from a leading retailer, Insight Pharmaceuticals LLC, makers of Anacin® Advanced Headache Formula, had to create a new package that presented the product vertically and allowed it to maximize face counts. At the same time, the retailer requested that the unit carton be eliminated entirely, requiring the drug maker to come up with a new vehicle for regulatory information—information that was usually inserted in the carton. The solution had to allow Anacin® Advanced to maximize the brand’s shelf presence while combining a prime label with all the content required for an OTC internal analgesic drug. To comply with the retailer’s requirements, Insight had to break with tradition and present its product vertically. To do so, it determined the best way was to deploy an extended-text label. WS Packaging Group provided the answer.
WS Packaging Group recommended its EasyTab® extended-text label from its MultiVision® label line. These labels feature a pre-curve in the top panel that makes it possible for the label to fully wrap around tight-diameter surfaces. For Anacin® Advanced, this ensured ample space for the detailed information required for regulatory compliance of OTC drugs. The label also features an easy-open tab that is convenient for consumers and is guaranteed to open and close under normal conditions for the shelf life of the product.
The pressure-sensitive label features a metallic finish and all the brand impact and shelf presence of the previous package.
The result is a solution that provides the necessary printing space for regulatory compliance and allows more facings on the shelf despite the smaller footprint. An additional benefit—eliminating the unit carton—resulted in a noticeable savings in cost per package.
Companies Mentioned:
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