Torque-Free Rx Closure Allows for Single-Handed Operation

When Rocky Batzel was a child, his mother would drive to his grandmother’s house to open her pill bottles because she didn’t have the strength and dexterity to open them herself. His grandmother would then leave the caps off the bottles, which often resulted in spilled pills or safety concerns when her grandchildren visited.

“Seeing this cycle repeat itself day after day was my inspiration to reinvent the child-resistant Rx closure,” says Batzel, inventor of the SnapSlide prescription vial cap. “Once I began researching, I discovered a dynamic in which millions of Americans struggle with the process of opening and properly closing currently available child-resistant closures.”

A new twist on an old challenge.

Batzel determined that using two hands to squeeze and/or push conventional closures while simultaneously twisting them was impossible for many people and disliked by most. So he decided to remove torque from the process.

“Once twisting was removed from the design, the developmental process focused on balancing operational forces and human factors,” he says.

The resulting closure design has a slide-to-open mechanism that can be activated with one hand and requires less force and dexterity to operate than the current push-and-turn technology. The cap stays firmly affixed to the vials, adding a dimension of safety and convenience while allowing for easy, metered dosing. The closure system also produces an audible snap upon closing that lets consumers know the bottle is properly closed.

Checking the box on sustainability.

In addition to its user-friendly design, the SnapSlide offers sustainability benefits. According to the manufacturer, the closure is 27% lighter than the average conventional child-resistant cap and decreases overall plastic usage by 23% to 41%, depending on the type of closure it replaces. The cap’s low profile also improves storage and shipping efficiencies as traditional child-resistant closures take up twice the space of SnapSlide closures.

SnapSlide

All resins and colorants used in SnapSlide are industry-standard and widely used in other prescription packages on the market. Batzel shares that these FDA-grade resins are sourced from certified and established suppliers and are fully recyclable; however, SnapSlide is material agnostic and embraces ever-growing options for sustainable injectable resins.

Caps are available for 13, 16, and 20 Dram vials with larger sizes available upon request. The technology can also be applied to a range of plastic and glass containers that require child resistance.

SnapSlide was recently introduced to the public at Abilities Expo, an event for the disabled community, in New York, and a consumer awareness campaign will take place later this year.