Communication through smart packaging By Christopher Waterhouse, Managing Director, iDi Pac Ltd
New technologies can be used to influence patient behaviour, improve communications and adherence to medication regimes resulting in improved outcomes. he largest single therapeutic area and issue facing the pharmaceutical industry is regimen treatment adherence and product communications. It is a widely held belief that much of this issue can be addressed through use of innovative and cost-effective packaging solutions. The pharmaceutical industry knows that on average only 50% of prescribed prescription drugs are consumed as required. It follows therefore that there may be a potential doubling of industry sales annually, currently estimated at around US$ 1 trillion. This suggests a major opportunity and something that the world of packaging can do so much to support with a much smaller budget than typical allocated
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to R&D activity in more resource intensive areas – oncology, pain relief, diabetes and so forth. And for the patient community, in the US failure to adhere to regimen is estimated to cause around 125,000 US deaths annually, with non-adherence largely grouped under the categories of communication and complexity. It is suggested therefore that both Rx and OTC pharmaceuticals would benefit from enhancements in the communication and other smart technologies delivered through the packaging systems; communication and an improved patient experience via integration with the Internet of Things (IoT) and other digital technologies. Smart technologies The smart phone has the power and capability to drive adoption
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of on-pack solutions, be they RFID, NFC or more cost effectively, Smart Code systems. The provision of communication can be leveraged – as stated earlier the correlation between communication and adherence is well known. Smart phones now have the capability to read the variety of bar codes that can provide both fixed and dynamic links to allow access to e-PILs (electronic patient information leaflet), which can be presented with enhanced colours, be customisable with respect to the order of presentation, accessible in regards the data delivery and language, eg audio and so forth. A further benefit of this approach is the removal of the printed PIL. Manufacturing plants frequently cite that insertion of some of the
