Modernizing Prescription Information

The Prescription Information Modernization Act of 2025 (PIMA) is being hailed as a significant development for the pharmaceutical industry because it represents rare bipartisan agreement on an issue that directly impacts both healthcare providers and patients. In a video interview with Pharma Commerce, Diogo Rau, executive vice president and chief information and digital officer for Eli Lilly and Company, emphasizes that when legislation garners cross-party support, it often signals a transformative change.

One of the core issues PIMA addresses is the outdated, cumbersome nature of prescription information. Unlike other consumer products that spark excitement and social sharing, medicines are often accompanied by an overwhelming amount of paper-based documentation, which dampens the patient experience. Physicians and patients alike must navigate lengthy, jargon-heavy inserts that are difficult to read and understand.

Currently, a typical prescription package insert equates to roughly 45 pages if formatted as a standard book. These inserts are printed in extremely small font sizes and filled with technical language, making them inaccessible to many, especially patients with limited English proficiency. This creates barriers to understanding medication instructions, side effects, and other critical information, undermining both safety and adherence.

PIMA aims to modernize this system by initially focusing on the documentation that healthcare providers receive. While it doesn’t yet solve all issues tied to patient-facing labeling, it represents the first step toward broader improvements. By digitizing and simplifying prescription information, the Act seeks to reduce inefficiencies, enhance accessibility, and ultimately create a better healthcare experience.

For manufacturers, this modernization could mean streamlined compliance and reduced printing costs, while providers benefit from clearer, more usable data that aids in decision-making. Patients stand to gain the most through improved comprehension of their medications, which may lead to greater confidence, adherence, and outcomes. Rau underscores that while PIMA is only a starting point, it lays the groundwork for transforming how prescription information is communicated in the future.

He also comments on the impact reducing paper inserts will have on pharma operations and environmental goals; the challenges that remain for full-scale adoption of electronic prescribing information; and much more.

A transcript of his conversation with PC can be found below.

PC: Why is the Prescription Information Modernization Act of 2025 (PIMA) a game-changer for the pharma industry, and what benefits do you see for manufacturers and healthcare providers?

Rau: It's not every day that we get excited about legislation, but we always should get excited about legislation when both parties actually agree on something and want to do something. That’s already something that just tells you right away that this going to be a game-changer.

Now, I think we all know what the experience of medicines are like. There are very few things that are so valuable as medicines that when you get them—people don't post unboxing videos on TikTok. When's the last time you've been excited about the medicine that you're getting and you want to show you want to show it off?

Medicines are behind in many ways, and one of those ways is the amount of paper that comes with them. This Act is not fixing the whole problem, but it is starting with the documentation that physicians receive, and that in itself is a huge volume of documentation. The overall package inserts that we get as a patient, that's ultimately where we where we want to get to, and, and I don't know if you realize, but with the volume of information that's just in one package insert, do you have any guess on just how many pages—if you were to do it like as normal book—is in a typical package insert?

PC: I want to say at least 20 to 30. It seems very massive.

Rau: It’s actually 45—it's insane. Now, of course, it's 45 pages of text that's shrunk down to four-point font that you can't possibly read, and is written with jargon that perhaps you can't understand. If you don't speak English well, then you're kind of out of luck, at least in the United States.

There's a lot of room to improve on everything that we have around prescription labeling, and this Act—the Prescription Information Modernization Act of 2025—is just the first step towards a much better patient experience.