Keeping prying fingers from blister packs

Keeping prying fingers from blister packs
Pharmaceutical packaging designers must ensure trouble-free access to a product by bona fide users, while safeguarding it against the unwanted attentions of a child’s fingers. Simplicity is a key issue, which certainly applies to an innovation from a newly formed UK company. It combines permanent and peelable adhesives on a secondary layer, which is applied in a pattern to match the layout of the blister and tablet pockets. The peelable sections over the pocket areas are perforated. When the sections are in place it is difficult to push the tablets out, but when peeled back the tablets can be pushed through the backing foil.
Pill protect (a trademarked name), based in Tonbridge, Kent, says its peel-and-push products will help the pharmaceutical industry reach “child resistant/senior-friendly” compliance, while offering flexible branding and labeling opportunities. Critically, it meets a new standard (BS8404) for child resistance that is expected to become a legal requirement for blister-packed paracetamol, aspirin and iron tablets by October 2003.
“With an average of some 2,000 annual admissions to the hospital of children suffering from accidental overdoses on pain-killers [in the UK], and following the tragic death of a toddler after consuming iron tablets found in a blister-pack, the government, in conjunction with the Medicines Control Agency, is pushing legislation through on child resistance for blister-packed drugs. All the major manufacturers and retailers are looking for solutions to address this. That is why we have launched Pill protect as an end-to-end solution that offers rapid compliance with minimum disruption,” says Jonathan Bobbett, managing director.
Pill protect is said to offer customers new “on-pack” marketing and branding opportunities that are not possible with conventional foil-backed products. Furthermore, users can introduce the product to high-speed production lines with minimal investment and a low impact on production throughput.
Because of variations in packaging, branding and end-user information requirements, Pill protect has set up a dedicated service delivery arm to ensure users reach legal compliance quickly while maximizing the product’s marketing and branding opportunities. A reordering facility allows drug manufacturers and packers to reduce their stock holdings. Other services include branding, graphic design and artwork services, online order placement and tracking, technical and production support and engineering and design consultancy.