KEREN SOOKNE’S PERSPECTIVE

Innovations in Unit Dose and OTC Packaging Abound

The healthcare packaging community has an important role to play in keeping kids safe from accidental unsupervised medication ingestions.

Four busloads of kids. That’s the approximate number of children in the U.S. who come into emergency departments every day due to accidental unsupervised medication ingestions. As Dr. Ed Kuffner, Chief Medical Officer at Johnson & Johnson Consumer Health, explains in our Q&A on pp. 18, he’s seen firsthand the heartbreak of treating these preventable illnesses in children.

Unit dose packaging has an important role to play in delivering medication safely to adults, while preventing access among children. Dr. Kuffner discusses a new technology: a unique folding blister package design that won their recent QuickFire Challenge.

Next in package design, for a real-world look at what’s on shelves today, check out our annual OTC package design gallery (pp. 28). Packages had a bit more “flash” than in previous years, with metallic shrink sleeves, eye-catching foil accents, and an aluminum bottle for antacid tablets touting recyclability.

On the logistics side, we cover a warehouse automation case study which allowed Aurobindo Pharma USA to build “up” more than “out” in their New Jersey distribution hub (pp. 22). We also raise some important questions about how quarantined product will be processed under DSCSA traceability mandates (pp. 34).

KEREN SOOKNE is the Director of Editorial Content of Healthcare Packaging. She may be reached at ksookne@pmmimediagroup or at linkedin.com/in/kerensookne

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