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Smart packaging touches many areas of packaging including food, beverage, and pharmaceutical. For pharmaceutical packaging in particular, there have been several advances in the use of smart packaging, specifically in the realm of patient compliance and patient interaction.

The use of smart technologies in any packaging impacts package printers and converters in a variety of ways. The emergence of brand protection as an important market for package printers is one area that impacts those who print pharmaceutical packaging or labels. Secure waste streams, chain-of-custody techniques, and now printed electronics may mean that before long you’ll be learning yet another technique to employ for your customers.

In the realm of patient compliance—patients taking their medication when they are supposed to—pharmaceutical packaging has gone high tech, using technologies like printed electronics, RFID, and conductive inks to communicate not only with the patient, but also with his or her physician or other authorized healthcare organizations.

Packaging innovations

The following are three examples of pharmaceutical packaging that employ various technologies to make the products smart. They become intelligent by enabling them to communicate in different ways with a medicine’s user, as well as for clinical trials where it is communicating numerous bits of information back to a research team.

• MWV Healthcare Cerepak -Electronic Compliance -Packaging, www.mwv.com

This smart package’s target is the clinical trials market. Cerepak records the date, time, and location of each tablet or pill as it is removed from the package. These data can be quickly downloaded into a computer for analysis by the patient or healthcare provider. The system also enables interaction with the patient—it can record side effects or symptoms, as well as discreetly prompt the patient to take the medication using light, sound, or vibration.

MWV designed Cerepak with several goals in mind: accurately record the date and time each dose is taken; improve data quality and statistical power in clinical trials; help clinicians more accurately determine when a non-responder is actually a non-compliant subject; and provide child resistance as necessary.

Cerepak is the result of a partnership between MWV and Cypack, which integrated its smart technology into the Cerepak package. This allows data to be stored in an electronic module embedded into the packaging. Data can be accessed by a computer and imported into a simple spreadsheet or more complex analytical software. Cerepak uses printed conductive traces to transfer information to and from the package and electronic module, using conductive inks to do so.

• The Compliers Group Objective therapy Compliance Measurement (OtCM) Solution, thecompliersgroup.com

The OtCM solution is a blister pack that uses an intelligent foil that includes printed electronic circuitry on the foil substrate, which can be used as basic material for the blister, replacing the current aluminum foil.

Intelligent foil registers the removal of the pill from the blister pack and stores the time/date stamp in the foil memory. The memory also contains all information about the medicine and the medicine usage. The package allows a patient’s condition and therapy behavior to be monitored by means of electronic devices; data to be gathered and transmitted to central databases without any intervention; and authorized healthcare organizations, physicians, etc. to analyze the data.

• Stora Enso Pharma DDSi -Intelligent Packaging Solution, www.storaenso.com/pharma

This packaging solution reminds patients to take their medications and records the date and time each tablet was taken from the package. Answer keys, an electronic diary of medication, and a beeper or text message reminders are added features enabled by this solution.

The smart functionality provides patient compliance monitoring. “Lapses of memory and other medication errors are regrettably common when a patient is cared for in his or her own home,” says Ralph Mendoza, sales and marketing manager, North America, Stora Enso, Consumer Boards Pharmaceutical Solutions Group. “With Stora Enso Pharma DDSi, the compliance data stored in the microchip embedded in the package can be read with a mobile phone and transmitted automatically to a server where it is readily and safely available to those responsible for a patient’s care.” He adds that compliance monitoring is also needed by pharmaceutical companies to demonstrate the efficacy of their drugs.

The carton itself has an inner design that enables effective unit-dose packaging such as fold-over blisters or perforated push-through applications. It is lightweight and small enough to fit in a pocket, but offers several printable surfaces for patient guidance. The compliance-monitoring solution is based on conductive print and a microchip embedded on the carton. The carton can also have a beeper to remind the patient about the medication.

Ways to read and transfer the compliance data from the package. include using a reader that converts the data from the carton to the PC. Pharma DDSi is also compatible with the latest mobile technology using near-field communication (NFC), a two-way communication technology based on RFID that enables wireless communication.

Impact on printers

Many components of a smart package are added when a printed substrate is converted into a package, whether it be laying down the RFID tag or inserting the chip into the carton. However, package printers are impacted as well, sometimes even laying down the RFID tag themselves. According to Tom -Grinnan, director, innovation and adjacent markets, MWV, “Many of these technologies, including serialization and other value-added solutions, will require quality control and software systems to be on the floor for printers and converters. This might require additional training and investment by the industry.” He adds that printers that make the Cerpak product will need expertise in printing conductive inks. “On the converting side, we specifically designed Cerepak to be assembled using the same processes and equipment as the equivalent non-smart packaging,” he explains.

Mendoza says that the need to improve patient adherence through high-compliance packaging solutions continues to be one of the most important trends that package printers should be aware of. “Due to the challenges in sustainability and pilferage, we also expect growing interest and use for specialty board products such as tear-resistant and heat-seal boards,” he adds.

Jos Geboers, chief technology officer, The Compliers Group, says printing electronically will bring new features in the packaging industry because the empty package still will contain information of the product and the use of the product. Where do package printers fit in? “In the future, printers will be able to print electronic circuits on all kinds of substrates, even paper,” he says. “The [presses] will be highly sophisticated machines [not only because of the currently used inks], but many organic materials will form the electronic circuits.” He adds, “I do not see the complete impact yet, but you can imagine that it will create a completely different world in the industry.”

On the horizon for MWV Healthcare is “collaborating with customers globally to provide innovative healthcare packaging solutions that drive brand awareness, differentiate products, and engage consumers to ultimately enhance product performance and improve public health,” says Grinnan. He cites medical adherence as becoming increasingly important. The examples above show how far pharmaceutical packaging has come in that respect—and it could lead the way. According to Grinnan, “Pharmaceutical packaging has been clinically proven to address this issue with calendared blister packs and other packaging formats that remind patients to take their medication on time, and information labels and pamphlets that stay with the medication wherever it goes.” pP