Schreiner MediPharm, working in conjunction with the Dutch technology firm Experts in Communications & Connectivity Technology (ECCT), has developed a smart blister pack for a global pharmaceutical company.
Image: Printed electronics and smart sensors turn a standard blister pack into a modern compliance monitoring tool. Photo: courtesy of Schreiner Group.
The pack has been developed for digital patient compliance monitoring to improve medication adherence by clinical trial participants.
While clinical trials need high accuracy, reliable workflow, efficiency, speed and flexibility, the conventional, non-automated processes are often error-prone.
The successful outcome of clinical trials depends on the medication adherence by participating patients, which is hard to track.
Usually, nearly 20% of patients do not adhere to medication therapy, which forces trial organizers to compensate for the resulting accuracy deficit by increasing patient populations up to 60%.
To enhance medication adherence, Schreiner MediPharm partnered with ECCT and the pharmaceutical firm involved for developing a smart packaging solution for patient compliance monitoring.
When a patient presses a tablet from the blister pack, data will be generated in real time, which includes medication type, extraction time and specific cavity.
The data is automatically stored in the smart packaging and transmitted to a database through a smartphone app or reader.
Interactive communication between physicians and patients is also possible, where physicians can send compliance reminders or dose adjustments to patients.
Schreiner said the smart packaging solution includes printed electronics without impacting the packaging design, and a smart database platform allows varied data transfers and analyses.
ECCT provided the package’s smart sensors, while Schreiner MediPharm supplied the printing technology.
Schreiner said the use of the digital patient compliance monitoring tool will allow the pharmaceutical firm to reduce the manual documentation.
Earlier this year, Schreiner MediPharm exhibited its portfolio of new analog and digital security solutions for reliable counterfeiting and tampering protection at Pharmapack event in Paris, France.
The product lineup included the BitSecure copy detection pattern which allows easy, digital authentication of pharmaceutical packaging using a smartphone app.