Packaging: The next blockbuster

‘There is a growing belief that patient adherence is perhaps the next blockbuster for pharmaceuticals – if you can make sure that the patient takes the medication correctly and gets the best outcome, then not only will the relationship with the doctor be good because the patient feels he is getting something that is doing him good, but the doctor will also be more likely to prescribe that medication in future, which will benefit the pharmaceutical company,’ he explains.

‘Payers are now saying that they want to pay for outcomes, not treatment, and this is changing fundamentally the paradigm in the industry about how important it is for patients to take the medication correctly. If they don’t take it correctly, they will almost certainly not get the outcome that the payer is prepared to pay for.’

When a patient receives his medication from the pharmacist, he will often be given the drug in a blister pack, inserted into a carton together with a leaflet. Three out of those four elements are packaging-related, emphasizing the influence that packaging can have on the patient experience of the drug.

‘For years it has always been about the drug, but now the pharmaceutical companies are beginning to see it is the confluence of all those things that will be a major aid driving patient adherence,’ asserts Spackman. ‘It is possible for pharmaceutical companies to have a real conversation with their patients through packaging.’

NextBottle’s benefits: ease-of-use, shelf storage and transport. Patients can keep track of what pills have been taken by looking at the day displayed on the dial and missed doses can be identified. ‘The end result is improved compliance. Better patient compliance leads to better health outcomes, which translates to greater patient satisfaction and brand loyalty,’ says One World DMG

The origins of compliance-enhancing packaging can be traced to the introduction of the birth control pill almost 50 years ago: today, this category of product boasts the highest rate of compliance – over 95% – because users understand that non-compliance can have a very rapid and tangible impact on their lives.

At the other end of the scale, compliance rates for chronic conditions such as congestive heart failure, diabetes and glaucoma, where disease progression may be more insidious, languish at around 42% – although in the case of glaucoma, this increases to 58% once sight has been lost in one eye.

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