Packaging goals differ globally	August 2008

Although blister packaging in Europe is used more frequently, experts say this does not necessarily mean improved patient compliance.

Packaging of pharmaceutical drugs in the United States differs compared with European packaging trends. Blister packaging is becoming more common in the United States, however, this form of packaging comprises more than 80% of pharmaceutical packages in Europe. Despite this percentage, patient compliance is not as high as the United States. Some experts believe that this is because blister packaging alone does not necessarily qualify as compliance packaging and the majority of patient adherence studies conducted have come out of the United States.

"Europe’s use of blister packs is high, but their actual use of compliant packaging is probably smaller than one would think because just because you have a blister package doesn’t mean that you get adherence," says Bill Sharpless, marketing director, Reynolds Flexible Packaging (reynoldsflexpack.com), "If you have a blister of 10 and it doesn’t have the day of the week on the front or a number, you still don’t know the difference between whether you took it today or not. You climb into bed at night and you can’t remember if you took your medicine. If it’s just on a card that doesn’t have any information on it, then you’re still at a loss."

Patient compliance has not been measured in Europe as it has been in the United States. “I haven’t seen any studies that get to that,” says Akan Oton, global marketing director, Catalent Pharma Solutions (catalent.com). “Most of the compliance studies I’ve seen have been U.S. based, rather than European based, and you also have a lot of cultural factors there around access to physicians and the role of physicians.”

In some countries, products that would be obtained through a prescription in the United States may be available over the counter or behind the counter without a prescription. prescribed by the pharmacists, are in front of the counter or behind the counter. In these cases, a need is created for a variable in the product, according to Vince Parry, president, Y Brand (ybrand.com), and chief branding officer, inVentiv Communications (inventivhealth.com).

“If we were to bulk make an antidepressant here in the United States and you go to the pharmacy and you’re given a bunch of pills to take home with just a pharmacist’s label on it, in Mexico you could say, ‘I want that same antidepressant,’ and there it comes in a beautiful package with branding and instructions and a little blister pack,” Mr. Parry told Med Ad News. “They have a marketing situation where it is going directly to the consumer via an informed expert, so that creates a need for more connectivity between marketers and packages outside the United States.”