Design Innovation

If there's one thing that Colbert Packaging has learned over the years, it's that drug companies are looking for more than just safety when it comes to packaging their drugs. They also want a package that will remind patients to take their medication.

And that's exactly what Colbert had in mind when it designed AlertPak™. Pharmaceutical companies make up more than half of the Lake Forest, Ill.-based folding carton converter's business.

AlertPak, produced by Colbert Packaging is designed to remind patients to take their medication.

"Everyone is looking for compliance packaging," says Glenn Grosskopf, vice president of product development.

AlertPak's slogan, "designed to remind" sums it up best. The patent-pending package is in a regular box form when you pick it up from the pharmacy. But when you get it home it doesn't have to be tucked away and forgotten about in your medicine cabinet. The patient can turn the box into a display that pops up. It can sit on your bathroom sink, on your night stand, on your kitchen counter, or anyplace visible, Grosskopf says. It also can pop back into its original form if, for example, you had to pack it for a trip.

"Clinical trials show that a primary cause of patient noncompliance is forgetfulness; they simply get too busy and forget to take their medication," Grosskopf says. "The problem can be compounded if patients simultaneously take multiple missed dosages, which can be life threatening."

Unit dose packaging solutions like AlertPak offer tracking and accountability measures.

Compliance is really a two-fold benefit, explains Grosskopf, "It's not only benefiting the patient, it's benefiting the pharmaceutical companies."

In addition to the health risks associated with missing required dosages, pharmaceutical companies are losing money when patients forget to take their medication. Less trips to the pharmacy and less refills equal lost income. All the more reason, compliance is so important to Colbert's customers and why developing compliance packaging has become such a focus for the company.

The folding carton can be made to specification and can ship flat. While it has only recently been introduced, the initial response to the product has been positive, Grosskopf reports.

Added Features

Colbert has other features it has built into its pharmaceutical packaging that can be incorporated into AlertPak's design such at its Pharm-Guard™. PharmGuard is a tear-resistant paperboard made of Everest Safe-Pak solid bleached sulfate board from International Paper and multilayer Valéron Strength Film. The solution is intended to prevent children from tearing or biting into the packaging while remaining easy for seniors to open.

And that's not all in the way of compliance packaging you can expect to see from this Midwest converter. The company has other products on the horizon. Colbert plans to introduce more compliance packages into the market this year, all of which can be made with PharmGuard.