HCPC Announces Results for its 2008 Compliance Package of the Year Awards
4-7-2009 

Falls Church, VA (April 7, 2009) - The Healthcare Compliance Packaging Council (HCPC) is pleased to announce the winners of its annual Compliance Package of the Year competition, which consists of two categories: one for trade packages and the other for innovative designs not yet used commercially. The results are:

• 2008 Compliance Package of the Year: Prempro Starter Kit by Wyeth Pharmaceuticals
• First Runner Up: PharmaDDSi Suboxone Compliance Monitoring Package by Stora Enso
• Innovative Design: CIAB - Compliance In A Bottle by Anderson Packaging Inc., & AmerisourceBergen Packaging Group

This year's Compliance Package of the Year, the Prempro Starter Kit, combines four pouched blister physician samples with an assortment of support devices. The kit provides 20 days of therapy to help acclimate the patient to the dosing regimen and consists of the blister packs along with an informational brochure, a patient education enrollment card, a prepaid business reply card along with a patient insert. In reviewing this package, one of the judges commented that, "This is an outstanding starter kit with some very innovative features. I like the fact that the most important cautions are clearly and repeatedly spelled out. The M-Powered enrollment form is a novel way of improving compliance." 

Stora Enso's PharmaDDSi Suboxone Compliance Monitoring Package was named as First Runner Up in the 2008 competition. This intelligent package incorporates an electronic microchip to monitor compliance and was designed by Stora Enso for use by Kuopio University Hospital of Finland for its Suboxone treatment study. Because compliance was critical in the study, the PharmaDDSi package was used and results revealed low variability in registered time-cues that confirm good compliance. One HCPC judge observed, "This package is impressive because of its electronics and ample amount of 'real estate' for product information, branding and labeling."

The Innovative Design prize was awarded to CIAB - Compliance In a Bottle by Anderson Packaging, Inc. and AmerisourceBergen Packaging Group. The package is highly portable as well as extremely sturdy, making it convenient for taking along on a daily or longer-term basis. The broad surfaces allow for tremendous branding opportunities as well as labeling. Brand distinction is also increased through customization of the bottle color, size and label design, each of which are customizable. Opening the package is a simple, push-down-and-slide motion to remove the cap. Consumers can then pull the blister card out for ease of dispensing. Because the child resistance is provided by the outer package, the burst strength necessary to compromise the pill cavity is minimized, providing additional senior friendliness.

In reviewing CIAB, HCPC judges commented that the package is "A tremendous means of incorporating four weeks of therapy in the size of a typical weekly wallet card," and "At last someone has designed a unit dose with a child resistant feature that doesn't have to be a permanent part of the package."

While there is no fee or other monetary requirements to participate, qualifying packages for the Compliance Package of the Year "trade" category must: 1) be in a unit dose format; 2) have at least one compliance enhancing feature; 3) have been commercially available - anywhere in the world - at some point during 2008; and 4) not require drug products to be 're-packaged' by patients. Qualifying entries for the Innovative Design category, which are not available commercially, were required to meet the three remaining eligibility criteria.

As the 2008 Compliance Package of the Year, representatives from Wyeth and Anderson Packaging Inc. will be asked to designate a U.S. school of packaging to receive scholarship funds provided by the HCPC and Canon Communications. The First Runner-up and the Innovative Design winner will also be asked to designate scholarship funds to a university-level packaging school focused on the pharmaceutical industry.

Each winning entry will also be honored at the HCPC's annual National Symposium on Patient Compliance to be held May 12, 2009 in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, and will receive publicity within the Council's magazine, Unit Dose Alert and coverage by the trade press. All qualifying entries will also be displayed at the HCPC booth during trade events over the next twelve months. Complete competition guidelines are available on the Internet by visiting www.unitdose.org or by contacting the HCPC offices at 703/538-4030.

The Healthcare Compliance Packaging Council is a not-for-profit trade association whose mission is to promote the greater use of unit dose packaging due to its superior ability to improve patient compliance, as well as provide tamper evidence, protect efficacy, prevent poisonings, improve safety and reduce counterfeiting.