Innovative compliance designs capture HCPC honors

The 2009 Compliance Packages of the Year were announced by the Healthcare Compliance Packaging Council at HCPC’s 18th Annual National Symposium on Patient Compliance. The awards consist of two categories: one for trade packages released in the past year and the other for innovative designs not yet used commercially.

Pfizer’s Toviaz Physician Sample earned honors as the 2009 Compliance Package of the Year. The package uses the AmerisourceBergen Packaging Group IntuiDose child-resistant, compliance-prompting design in a four-panel format.

The package was cited for providing a comprehensive approach to initializing over active bladder therapy, in a design that integrates extensive tools for patient education, tips and tools for a detailed treatment plan, and tools to facilitate patient-doctor interaction for managing symptoms. The package features F-1 child resistance, with a push-through design that is friendly to adults.

The four-panel folder format incorporates a patient guidebook featuring symptoms explanations, recommendations for managing OAB, and how to properly take the medication. A customer response card is integrated in the pack, allowing patients to complete a questionnaire and enroll in an interactive treatment program.

A daily tracker functions as a diary for tracking goals and health improvement. The package includes full patient prescribing information, with tablets laid out in a simplified 14-day regimen, including instructions about how to properly ingest the medication. The program also provides a tool to review progress with the physician over the 12 week course of treatment.

Bristol-Myers Squibb’s Onglyza Physician Sample, also submitted by Anderson Packaging, garnered the First Runner Up award. Onglyza is indicated for the treatment of type-2 diabetes. The two-panel Physician Sample folder design utilizes a coldformed “foil-foil” unit-dose blister design sealed into a carded blister.

Patient prescribing information is integrated into the package at the point of dispensing. A pocket is included in the design to facilitate compliance supporting literature, allowing for placement of wallet reminder card that directs patients to the drug website or toll-free number for further information about treatment and potential savings when filling their script.

Second Runner Up honors went to the GlaxoSmithKline Lamictal ODT Titration Kit. package. The compliance-prompting and child-resistant format employs a hybrid of the MWV Dosepak design, with a unique construction to accommodate delicate tablets (see main story).

In the Innovative Design category, Vitality Inc. won for its GlowCap. The intelligent pill caps use light and sound, which can be followed by timely phone calls or text messages to remind people to adhere to any prescription regimen. Each time the pill bottle is opened, adherence data is securely relayed to Vitality over AT&T’s cellular network. These daily adherence data are used to automatically refill prescriptions as pills deplete. In addition, progress reports are sent to patients, caregivers and family members for increased social support. Using sophisticated pattern recognition, Vitality determines the unique motivators for each person and implements individualized behavioral programs to cost-effectively lift adherence.