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Originally Published January 2000

PHARMACEUTICAL

One-Piece Approach to Economical, Senior-Friendly Closures

by Greg Erickson

It's not enough anymore for a bottle closure to be only child resistant. Nowadays, in order to meet government regulations, drug packagers must ensure that their closures are both child resistant and senior accessible, meaning that toddlers can't get into medicines without a lot of effort, but that elders can, with ease. The inevitable next step after the introduction of the first child-resistant, senior-accessible closures, according to some suppliers, was to somehow configure the child-resistant, senior-friendly mechanism into a more economical closure made from one component rather than from two. It's been done, and today one-piece, child-resistant, senior-accessible closures are gaining popularity among packagers of over-the-counter (OTC) drugs and nutritional supplements.

Reasons listed by proponents of this trend include lowered cost to the end-user, lowered strength requirements for the consumer, and, last but not least, increased marketing pizzazz. Although some manufacturers of two-piece closures question the measurable benefits of a move to one-piece designs, even they are moving ahead with plans to introduce competitive offerings of their own. It looks as though the one-piece—especially of the squeeze-and-turn variety—is well on its way to becoming as much an industry standard as the two-piece push-and-turn types have been for many years.

IS LESS MORE?

Whenever a product can be simplified, such as in a move to a one-piece item that does the work of two, savings seem all but certain. Robert T. Moore, training director at Smith Container Corp. (Forest Park, GA), says that such savings come in the form of cuts in the cost of the closure mold and in its assembly. But a one-piece design takes some of the work away from the closure itself and puts it, quite literally, on the shoulders of the bottle. This makes the job of the bottle maker more complex and possibly more expensive. Says John Scuderi, vice president of sales and marketing for Van Blarcom Closures Inc. (Brooklyn, NY), the result is an iffy "gimmick."

Such gimmicks, or, more precisely, the locking lugs that must be incorporated into the bottle for it to be one-piece closure friendly, restrict end-user choice. Says Scuderi: "Every one-piece closure requires a new, specific bottle. That eliminates [the packager's] ability to buy from more than one supplier. Most major pharmaceutical companies are not interested in being single sourced. They want to be able to buy from several sources. The one-piece design that uses gimmicks on the bottle offers a cost advantage, but purchasing latitude is taken away. I'm not an opponent of the one-piece style; I just think it's not going to do as well as it could because the cost savings are not that great." What are those savings? Scuderi replies, "Shooting from the hip, I'd say the total is 15 to 25% less for the one-piece with the bottle than for a two-piece with a bottle."

The Flapper (left) from Weatherchem and the Tab II from Kerr Group represent the latest in one-piece closures.

That sounds significant, and it is, says Phil Lambert, healthcare market manager for Rexam Closures (Evansville, IN), but it's only half the equation. "Reduction in cost represents 50% of the rationale for going in this direction," he says. The other half of the equation is ease of use. "Most of these [one-piece] closures aren't torque dependent," he says. "Seniors don't like using the two-piece push-and-turn closure because it requires a lot of force and dexterity. Watch senior citizens use a push-and-turn type and you'll see how much of their upper-body strength they have to put into it. Our focus groups have shown that squeeze-and-turn designs like ours are much preferred by seniors—once they've learned how to use them."

Regarding the loss of choice in working with suppliers, Lambert says that a stock line of lug-equipped bottles are available from either Rexam or Setco (Anaheim, CA). In addition to these stock sources, customers may select other bottle manufacturers to produce this finish under license. "Because of drug filings, many pharmaceutical companies are single sourced anyway—so they spend a lot of time selecting reputable suppliers."

Steve Carow, vice president of sales for Carow International (Crystal Lake, IL), which represents European closure manufacturers and does some development work of its own, questions the lament over a lack of supplier choice. "How many suppliers do you need? If you have good suppliers, and they can keep you in bottles and closures, everything's OK. Any marketer that uses a custom bottle or closure has dealt with this situation before."

Still, asks Scuderi, whose company manufactures two-piece push-and-turn closures: "Is it worth it? We're asking our customers, 'Why reinvent the wheel?'" Nevertheless, although clearly not now a proponent of one-piece closures, Scuderi says his company plans this year to introduce a closure "along the lines of the one-piece closures we've seen from other suppliers."

ONE-PIECE DESIGN

According to Edmond Phillips, vice president, Kerr Group Inc. (Lancaster, PA): "The traditional push-and-turn has been very successful over the past 30 years, and there will always be a place for it, but inroads have been made by the one-piece design. We're about to introduce our Tab II. It's easy to open by flexing two tabs on the side, and it reapplies with a 180-degree rotation and an audible click."

This configuration had been picked up by some but needed revision. "Take a look at the closures and bottles for Scope mouth rinse and Aleve," says Phillips, "and picture the pinch tabs on the closure instead of on the bottle. We looked at the one-piece concept that Procter & Gamble introduced with Aleve and asked how we could improve it and make it easier to produce and be cost competitive in the marketplace."

Peter Martin, vice president of sales and marketing for Captive Plastics (Piscataway, NJ), an injection and blow molder serving the pharmaceuticals market, says there's still a long way to go in meeting consumer needs. "We frankly have not been that impressed with the state of the art in one-piece closures. We've been working on our own concept that's less complicated."

One aspect of closures used for other products that has not yet appeared on those for drugs and supplements is the dispenser. Beth Murdoch, marketing communications manager for Weatherchem (Twinsburg, OH), says that consumer convenience can be taken to a new level with dispensing closures. "We've found that people who take supplements on a regular basis use multiples of them—as many as 10 to 15 tablets a day," she says. Removing and reattaching closures of any kind becomes tedious if it must be done so many times, she notes. While readying its own proprietary one-piece nondispensing closure for protocol testing this year, Weatherchem continues to see applications for its one-piece Flapper. This closure, which screws onto the bottle and incorporates a trapdoor-type lid, enables the consumer to dispense a tablet without removing the entire cap. Frank Facey, strategic accounts manager for Weatherchem, says: "Consumers have said over and over again they would rather flip something up than unscrew something. We did a survey with consumers as they exited a store. We asked them, 'Would you spend a penny more for a container with a flip top than for one without?' and most said yes. We asked them if they would also switch brands in order to get a bottle with a flip top, and they said yes."

If there's a problem with the flip top as it is now configured, however, it's that the closure has yet to incorporate child-resistant features, aside from the difficulty that a youngster's fingers might have in trying to pry open the door.

Steve Croke, president of the new Internet-based Pharmacychoice.com (Denver), says that he helped bring to market a child-resistant–senior-accessible closure now available from a major supplier. "We were the first in the industry to prove that a one-piece closure could provide a moisturetight seal," he says, "and there's a correlation between moisturetight and child resistant."

FUTURE DESIGNS

Croke says that he also "was always a big fan of the Aleve system." But, he adds, seniors don't always have the squeezing strength to make it work as well as it can, noting that this minimizes its effectiveness as a child-resistant closure as well. "An older person who gets frustrated trying to open it will leave it open all the time."

Croke continues to work on a new type of closure for drugs. "I'm at a stage where I'm three to four months away from proving it can work," he says. Beyond that, he'll describe it only as a "compliance kind of closure." That's where the future is taking us, he adds.