Pharmaceutical packaging design

If a prescription drug prescribed by a doctor is misused, it is hard to imagine the harm to people. When taking medication, only a little overdose can cause illness or misfortune. As a result, the author of this article put forward his doubts. Why is the product introduced by pharmaceutical companies as difficult to understand as the doctor's handwritten medical records are used for instructions and design?

Ten years ago, the author's wife and son suddenly got sick and the condition was very serious. In fact, the illness was also included by the author. But it was strange that both his wife and son had confirmed that they had contracted together after the inspection report came out. Insulin type diabetes.

In a short time, their blood sugar became very difficult to control, and they rose very high for a time, and they became hypoglycemia at one time.

A few weeks later, the doctor found out that there was something wrong with the condition. After excluding food structure changes, lifestyle changes, viral infections, and other factors that cause diabetes, the doctor concluded that the cause was improper packaging of medicines.


Diabetes usually requires two kinds of insulin, basic (long-acting) and pill (short-acting). The author's wife was sick because she mistakenly injected her son's basic insulin into her body.

This is a stupid mistake, but this error is related to packaging. If you look at the two types of packaging, basic insulin and pill insulin, it's hard to see the difference. Basic insulin for injection is also contained in a small bottle with a paper label on the outside.

The only difference between the two drug packages is the slight differences in the label on the bottle label. Actually, doctors often put a self-paste label on top of it so that the only difference is not.

The author's child's condition is even more worrying. His label of an insulin vial was torn off by the doctor. This indicates that his drug was expired and he could not take it. However, the local pharmacist did not find the problem or gave him an expired drug.

In this way, the two packages are exactly the same and cannot be distinguished at all. Drugs are transferred from the ambulance to the killer.

These are medicines prescribed by doctors. Diabetes cannot be pharmacists themselves. They sometimes get it wrong, so they must be careful.

In the above example, even if pharmacists and drug retailers cannot distinguish the differences, how about the patients themselves? This problem often occurs, but there has been no improvement for decades.

The author happened to be responsible for the design of food, beverages, home chemical products, and pharmaceutical packaging. So the author wrote a letter to the drug company to explain the problem and proposed suggestions for solving the problem.

If the color of the two insulin medicine packages cannot be changed, the author suggests that more differences can be found in the printing style, background color, layout design, and label shape. The company’s reply is that since the different colors used as marks are regulated by the EC decree, the company cannot do anything to improve the packaging.

This is not a simple "ordinary consumer" story. Even more shocking is that the author saw from some newspapers: "The weary doctor began to give the child excessive amounts of heroin."

With regard to the packaging of prescription drugs, some of the mistakes made by doctors with little experience do not surprise us. What is worse, the text on the packaging is like the case written by an old doctor, and it is difficult for the patient to read the above explanation.

In contrast, the food packaging industry is much more standardized and has detailed regulations, guidance, explanations, and instructions. Different forms of packaging are available in different sizes, the bar code is strictly sized and positioned, detailed instructions are provided, the nutrients of the contents, and the design of the packaging appearance are well-ordered. In order to avoid misuse or prosecution, food companies will have the following detailed declarations:

â—† At the top of the dairy package: "Please place it vertically after opening the lid and refer to this milk product."

â—† At the bottom of some coke bottles: "Please open the top"

â—† On the pudding label: "Carefully burn after heating"

â—† On the children's toy superman costume packaging: "Only toys, wear this can not let you really fly."

These are very big challenges for packaging designers. First, how to find the answer to solve the problem? In addition, how to use the packaging, so that the packaging itself to the consumer to use the product inside the use of information?

The pharmaceutical industry also has the same potential for development. It also needs clear and explicit instructions. The color, graphics, printing style, typesetting, materials, and packaging used to convey information must be valued by pharmaceutical manufacturers as much as food manufacturers.

One of the reasons is that prescription drug manufacturers only come from the "supplier psychology" and do not consider it carefully for consumers. This kind of mentality took root and developed slowly in the 19th century. Nowadays, it is a miracle to package products in the same form.

Many manufacturers like to print on bread

The name, or the printing of other product names in the same color, is a design step that is still maintained today, as is the drug manufacturer.

Some well-known drugs still use the packaging situation more than a hundred years ago and have never considered packaging to enhance their appeal.

For some patients to deal with their own drugs, such as insulin, packaging issues should pay more attention. Today's pharmaceutical companies are making a serious mistake. They have less and less contact with their real customers, patients. Drug packaging, drug promotion strategies must be patient-oriented, think of who is in the end, under what circumstances, how to use their products.

Simply designing and implementing packaging in the mind as if it were a consumer taking drugs does not work.

All pharmaceutical packaging must be tested in the worst use environment and can continue to be used.

If you do not consider it well, many pharmaceutical companies will think that their products are in line with the rules and quality is high. In fact, drugs that are used by consumers, retailers, or doctors in a correct manner are definitely not qualified drugs. This is a very irresponsible manifestation for pharmaceutical companies that rely on drugs for health or life.