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Now more than ever, more patients are managing their own healthcare through an array of prescribed and over-the-counter medications. Patient compliance is critical to successful treatment.

But noncompliance with drug regimens is a significant problem. According to the 2004 Datamonitor, the European Union alone registers annual losses of d30 billion, caused by patient noncompliance. In 2004, prescribed medicines cost the UK National Health Service more than £8 billion in England alone, yet four out of 10 people do not take them regularly enough to derive any benefit. The U.S. National Pharmaceutical Council announced that medication noncompliance costs the United States 125,000 deaths and $100 billion yearly. It is responsible for 10% of U.S. hospital admissions, costing approximately $31 billion for 380,000 patients.

Packaging plays an important role in improving patient compliance. Pharmaceutical wallets, in particular, can combine integrated instructional material, time-marked blisters, and convenient, easy-to-carry shapes and sizes. Wallets are not new, but companies are working to create cost-effective designs offering patients convenience, information, and peace of mind. With such wallets, pharmaceutical companies can improve patient health, save money, streamline manufacturing, and differentiate their brands in a highly competitive market.

Patient Health First

Patients with serious illnesses such as osteoporosis and diabetes must follow strict dosing schedules. Antibiotic treatments, too, require schedule compliance. Wallet packaging benefits patients by offering a simple, easy-to-use, and convenient way to maximize treatment effectiveness. Osteoporosis patients, for example, must take medication on the same day each week at a set time. Wallets can help patients keep a detailed calendar and schedule as well as a treatment record. In addition, while printed information inserted into a bottle or secondary package could be easily discarded, a wallet incorporates such information in the device used daily by patients. This type of integrated information ensures that patients have access to facts about their condition and medication consistently and reliably. These features not only help patients reap the full drug benefits, but also help them fully understand the consequences of noncompliance.

Streamlining Production

Successful packaging solutions solve problems cost-effectively. For widespread adoption of wallet-style packaging, production must be eased and streamlined.

Bosch Pharma Solid (part of Bosch Packaging Technology) sought to develop a wallet whose assembly is similar to that of conventional folding boxes, opening wallet packaging to a wider range of applications. The SmartWallet starts as a preglued outer sleeve erected and loaded with a blister on a conventional cartoning machine called the CUT130SW. A blister package, along with a paperboard card, is glued into the outer sleeve through lateral holding flaps. Leaflets or booklets can be preconfigured in the outer sleeve, introduced into the wallet during packing, or integrated into the outer packaging.

The CUT130SW cartoning machine produces both wallets and conventional folding boxes, allowing better utilization of a packaging line, particularly if only a smaller part of the production volume is in a wallet. Because leaflets and booklets can be either prefigured or inserted during manufacturing and either loaded into the wallet with the blister, attached to the outside of the wallet, or be part of the outer packaging, the wallet becomes feasible for many more drugs than before. By using a standard cartoner as the base machine, equipment can be easily repurposed to run cartons or wallets.

Looking Forward

Studies show that patients comply when presented with convenient solutions that integrate more readily into their everyday lives. Patients perceive medication not only by how effectively it treats illness or symptoms, but also by how it becomes part of their lives. By offering products that are easier to carry, use, and understand, pharmaceutical companies can effectively differentiate both new products and existing products from their competitors.

Given predictions that the rate of drug discovery will decrease significantly in the near future, the pharmaceutical industry is facing major changes. Companies that once competed with new products will now need to compete on convenience, information, and branding, features that can drive patient compliance. Solutions that offer production efficiency can help these companies introduce packaging that encourages compliance.