The power of packaging
I'm not sure I've ever really grasped the potential importance of packaging and medication information leaflets to patient adherence.
By on Aug 11, 2009I'm not sure I've ever really grasped the potential importance of packaging and medication information leaflets to patient adherence. But two speakers at our recent Patient Relationship Marketing and Adherence event really shined the spotlight on the impact packaging can have on patient compliance.
In today's feature article, I've summarized the main points of a presentation by Theo Raynor, professor of pharmacy practice at Leeds University and executive chairman of LUTO Research on the impact of poor communication via medicatioin information leaflets on patient compliance. Raynor argues that although the industry works very hard and invests heavily, both in talent and treasure, in developing innovative drugs, it essentially leaves what happens to those drugs once they reach patients' hands to chance. And thanks to poor health literacy among patients, the chances are great that adherence problems will undermine all of the intense effort that's gone into to bringing great drugs to market.
Steve Richmond, head of global packaging at AstraZeneca, brought a similar message to conference attendees. As he rightly points out in his presentation at the conference, our products' packaging is usually the only direct interface patients have with our companies.
"I'm convinced that the packaging can play a major role in patient adherence and, therefore, healthcare outcomes," Richmond argues.
He advocates making packaging "part of the treatment" and says AZ's goal is to be the industry leader in serving patients and delivering value through packaging. He and his colleagues are working toward that goal using three key strategies: standardization, customization and what they call "shaping the future," or innovating through packaging.
Richmond isn't naive, however. He understands that packaging is just one "lever," as he describes it, in the effort to improve patient compliance. But it will be an important one, he says, if the industry can leverage packaging solutions to address adherence hurdles such as patients remembering to take their medications and challenges like portability and fragility for some drugs.
"Patients need information that they can understand and the packaging for our drugs is the one piece of our industry that these patients take home," Richmond says.
He acknowledges the regulatory hurdles to making more user friendly and informative packaging and he says that means it can't be just a pharma effort. "We need to work with regulators, pharmacists, payers and other stakeholders to deliver better patient focused packaging to drive adherence," he says.
Quite simply, Richmond says, "we need to think harder." And he's right. Packaging hasn't been part of our overall marketing mix, as he points out, but he's spot on when he says that's what ends up in patients' hands.
Packaging - while maybe not sexy - is a key cog in the patient compliance wheel and one we need to make sure is being leveraged to its maximum potential.