To help ensure patient compliance as well as product quality, more and more is expected of pharma packaging designers. Are you not quite sure whether your designs hit the mark technology-wise? This article highlights three smart packaging technologies your competitors are either using as we speak or are bound to implement in the near future.
1. Temperature monitoring labels
Unpredictable weather conditions and issues with transportation can cause temperature-sensitive medication to expire prematurely without retailers and patients ever knowing. That’s why pharma packaging specialists are increasingly incorporating temperature monitoring labels into their designs. Want to follow their lead? You’ve got plenty of options, from labels which irreversibly turn black once they exceed or fail to meet a certain temperature, to full-fletched LED display labels which indicate whether the cold chain has been interrupted and which can even tell whether the drug in question is still suitable for consumption. Must-read: Pharmaceutical packaging helps patient to self-inject
2. Smart tablet boxes
Many patients, especially elderly patients, forget to take their medication at the prescribed times. To address this problem, pharmaceutical packaging designers are equipping tablet boxes with audio alarms and lightweight monitors to alert patients when it’s time to take their meds. Some smart tablet boxes can even automatically send requests to care providers via Bluetooth whenever a new prescription is due. Did you know? Experts forecast the smart sensor market to be worth 60 billion USD by 2022.
3. Electronic filling level indicators
Few things are more frustrating than having to guess what is still left in an opaque bottle. Because shaking a bottle tells patients only so much about its filling level, pharma packaging designers are now experimenting with e-paper displays which patients can easily operate using electronic touch controls on the front of the container. Inspired by Interpack