Packaging of medicines Flashcards
What is the most common form of packaging?
Blister packs / Blister cavities
How are blister cavities formed?
- Thermoforming - flims are heated to 120-145 degrees to improve ductility (stretchiness) for moulding the blisters
- Cold moulded: The alumminium films are moulded into shape, and to avoid any pin holes, the foil needs to be >20microns thick
- cannot print on the alumminium foil
Alternative to the aluminium foil in blister packs, what is the other possible foil?
Push-through blister foil. These are a strong seal, and are a one-step removal. CAn be printed on with stove lacquer.
What is the child-resistant form of foil?
Peelable foil - not push through making it child-resistant.
It has a two-step process to open - remove individual blister and then peel the foil.
What are Moisture proof foils?
These are often used if a drug is unstable in any moisture.
They use an OPA laminate and ordered Polyamine, and are impermeable to water vapour.
Very expensive to buy therefore only used if required.
Product Protection: Human altering:
Adulteration
Counterfiting
Tampering
What is Adulteration?
This is the dilution of an acitve raw material with another material or the substitution for someting that looks the same.
A problem with herbal medicines
Detected using: Pharmacognosy which is a process of detecting plant material that should and should not be in the formulation.
What is the difference between Falsified and Counterfit medications?
Falsified: Fake meds designed to mimic real meds
Counterfit: meds that don’t comply with intellectual property rights or that violate trademark law.
What do we know is a barrier in stopping Falsified meds from getting onto market?
The distribution chain is very complex - drug manufactured in one country, printed somewhere else, distributed to whole slaer who then sells to buisnesses. It is difficult to spot them as they look so similar to the originals. They are dangerous to patients.
WHat are the saftey features to reduce Falsified Meds on market?
1) saftey features e.g. bar codes, anti-tampering devices
2) Supply cahin and good distribution practice - new responsibilities for whole salers and good-distribution-practice guidelines.
3) Active ingredients and excipients regulations: All active substances and excipients manufactured from outside the EU must be accompanied by a written conformation from the authoroties of the exporting countries. Ensures GMP standards form outside EU are maintained.
4) Internet sales: any websites that are legally operating pharmacies and approved EU retailers will have a logo not on other un-approved websites.
Counterfit medications in more detail:
These are the correct medicine, but from an unothourised source used to mislead customer. The packaging will be very similar to original, with similar letters and numbers on the tablets, same shape etc.
They are very dangerous and can kill patients.
What is being done to protect against counterfit drugs?
More complex shape and apparence of tablets, more elaborate printing.
Packs can have expensive tags and biological markers
SOme have Radio-frequency indentification tags (RFID) to folow the journey of the durgs.
WHat is tampering with medication?
WHen medication has been tampered with, then put back on the shelf, or sold on black market as the real medication. Thsi is not from manufacturer or wholeslaer, but from members of the public or in the pharmacy.
What are the features to avoid tampering?
Film wrappers, foils, breakable caps, sealed metal tubes etc.
What is the patient adivce on tampering?
DOn’t take if:
medication looks different than usual,
tablets/capsuels are not all the same size or thickness,
different odour or taste,
Why is packaging so important for some products more than others?
SOme products will not exist without packaging i.e. will not survive the environment, or delicate material that cannot be handled without breakage, or formulations of volatile (easily evaporated) components.
What are the saftey features on bottles?
Child proof caps
Tamper-evidence caps - know if it has been opened beofre or not.