Drug packaging

EMA orders medicine name changes for first time to reduce errors

For the first time, drug companies across Europe have been told to change the names of medicines containing liposomal in their drug delivery systems following reports of medication errors that have led to patient deaths.…

MHRA issues drug alert for prednisolone tablets after dosage mislabelling in Braille

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency has issued a warning not to supply prednisolone from five batches of 5mg tablets to patients with sight problems following a Braille misprint on the packaging.…

Older people with hand disabilities struggle to open blister packs

This is a plea for the designers of blister pill packs to consider the increasing numbers of older people (and others) who have serious problems removing pills from the blister packs in which they are supplied. Before their advent, you would go to the pharmacy with your prescription and the ph…

Exclude medicines packaging from single-use plastics tax, urges CCA

The Company Chemists’ Association has called on Her Majesty’s Treasury for all medicine-related items to be excluded from its definition of single-use plastics in new efforts to address waste.…

FDA calls for label change on anti-diarrhoea drug to stem misuse by opioid users

US Food and Drug Administration calls for changes to how loperamide is packaged so that it can be sold in smaller quantities, for short-term use only.…

Improving packaging safety

In Emma Wilkinson’s excellent feature on pharmaceutical packaging design ( The Pharmaceutical Journal 2017;298:281), she stated that tall man lettering was introduced in 2009 following research by the National Patient Safety Agency (NPSA). The packaging for Wockhardt UK Ltd’s…

Design for dispensing: how far can we go to make packaging safer?

It is a decade since the National Patient Safety Agency issued guidance on medicines packaging design in a bid to reduce the risk of dispensing errors. But medicines that sound alike or look alike are still responsible for a large proportion of errors. A collaborative approach between manufacturers,…

Industry-wide standard on inhaler colour needed, say experts

Asthma inhalers being produced in an “increasing array” of colours is unsafe and could put patients lives at risk, say researchers, who have called for an official colour-coding system to avoid confusion.…

Unit-dose drug system frees up nurses and ‘removes potential for error’

The introduction of a unit-dose medicines packing, distribution and administration system at University Hospital of Leicester has streamlined the work of nurses on the renal wards, according to senior nurses at the hospital.…

Blister packs for Alzheimer’s drugs to be redesigned to reduce confusion for patients

The blister packs of drugs for people with Alzheimer’s disease will, from summer 2016, be marked with days of the week in order to reduce confusion when patients take their medicine, the UK medicines safety regulator has announced.…