Easy option: Patients, especially those who have difficulty using their hands, are wanting more easy-to-open packaging for their medication
When developing pharmaceutical packaging, several considerations need to be accounted for. Whether it’s child-resistance, tamper-proofing, stability, ease of use or efficiency for filling lines, packaging suppliers have to be one step ahead with meeting these requirements. But further to these factors, there is a more important element to look at – understanding the customers’ and end customers’ needs. The key is to develop and maintain long-term and consistent client relationships, becoming an extension to the product development team.
With the end-user in mind though, two major requirements are senior-friendliness and child-resistance. Patients, especially those who have difficulty using their hands, are wanting more easy-to-open packaging for their medication, but yet there are more stringent regulations being enforced for child-resistance.
When developing the packaging of a product, the focus of senior-friendliness and child-resistance depends on the treatment area and target patient group, as well as the geographical areas. For instance, US legislation has driven the use of child-resistant closures. But legislation in Europe is expected to increase, considering both factors. Senior-friendliness and child-resistance is a balancing act for the packaging industry.
There are a number of solutions on the market that satisfy each requirement, but the perfect solution that incorporates both does not yet exist. Optimising one factor will decrease the effectiveness of the other, which leaves packaging companies to prioritise on just one feature.
Not only do companies have to meet the specific end-user requirements, such as child-resistance; there are other factors that need to be considered, such as cost-effectiveness and stability. In particular, a package needs to provide a tight seal with high repeat usage and low failure rate. A unique shape or design is also important in some instances, to make a product stand out on the shelf, especially so in the OTC and nutraceuticals market.
It is certainly challenging to be able to meet all the requirements on a client’s ‘wish list’, but the ideal way to work, is to have the flexibility to meet as many different needs as possible. It is advantageous to standardise a product portfolio, this can drive high-volume synergies.
In general, pharma companies and regulatory agencies are not keen to change the way they do things because they see it increases work, cost and risk, especially in an industry that has such a big impact on health. Consequently, innovation is driven more by OTC and nutraceuticals companies, mainly for their marketing purposes and the need to attract end consumers. Continued pressure for change in the area of senior-friendliness and child-resistance also comes from patient groups, such as rheumatism associations – companies in the industry would do well to take this factor on board, but the ultimate key is to be flexible.