Entries for the 2014 Compliance Package of the Year are now being accepted

The Healthcare Compliance Packaging Council (HCPC; Bon Air, VA), a trade association of pharma packagers, has opened its competition for the annual Compliance Package of the Year. Entries will be accepted now through Feb. 27 from pharma companies, contract packagers and packaging designers. The top prize winners quality by a) be in a compliance-prompting format with at least one patient-adherence feature; b) have been commercially available, anywhere in the world, in 2014; c) not require repackaging by patients; and d) have child-resistant features, if intended for home use, per the guidelines of the Consumer Protection Safety Council. There is also an “Innovative Design” category for projects not yet commercially available.

HCPC has been promoting its Package of the Year for over a decade; in the interim, the issue of patient adherence has risen in importance in many parts of the healthcare system, including the Medicare Star ratings now used by CMS to rate healthcare provider networks. Pharma companies themselves have a self-evident interest in achieving higher patient adherence, and there are instances where better adherence results in better acceptance of drugs by payers. Nevertheless, most pharma companies pay attention to compliance packaging when products are first introduced, and then revert to lower-cost multi-dose packaging (e.g., bottles) after launch.

The HCPC award winners will be publicized at the association’s annual Rx Adherence meeting (Florham Park, NJ; March 31); HCPC also sponsors an collegiate scholarship that gets designated by the award winners.