1. Convenience of medicine packaging and medication
2.1 Labels, instructions and packaging labels Labels and instructions are an important part of pharmaceutical packaging. It is a scientific and accurate introduction to the basic content and characteristics of specific drugs. Its contents shall not exceed the contents defined in the drug product manual approved by the State Food and Drug Administration. The text shall be clear and standardized, and shall be printed with signs that meet the requirements, so that it is convenient for patients and clinical use. Through the investigation, the author found that the main problems with the convenience of the use of labels and instructions are:
1 In the format arrangement, some write the drug specifications and the number of packages in a very inconspicuous place, the word is small, and it is inconvenient to send drugs to the drug delivery room;
2 The dosage is unclear or difficult to understand. For example, if a drug reads “50 mg per serving†on the label, the patient does not understand the meaning of 50 mg. Another example is “2 g per day, divided into 4 doses.†These statements simply do not facilitate the use of drugs by patients.
The author suggests:
1 In the arrangement of the format, the name, specifications and quantity should be placed in a prominent position so as to facilitate drug dispensing in pharmacies;
2 The dosage should be easy to understand so that the patient can use the medicine. Such examples should be changed to "2 tablets per serving" (25 mg per tablet), "2 tablets per serving, 4 times daily" (each tablet is o.25 g).
2.2 Easy access and classification With the development of packaging materials and packaging technology, the pharmaceutical packaging is diversified, such as the use of easy-to-fold ampoule for injections, oral liquids with graduated dose cups, and external suppositories with disposable gloves. The use of push rods has greatly facilitated the clinical application. Tablets and capsules are now more and more used in aluminum-plastic blister packaging. Their advantages are single-dose packaging, which is convenient for patients and is also suitable for pharmacy release of drugs, while being portable and reducing. Pollution also has obvious advantages in gas barrier properties, moisture resistance, safety, production efficiency, and dose accuracy. However, in the actual work, the author found that most Chinese proprietary Chinese medicine Xiaomi Pills have the problem of difficulty in dose distribution. Such as Wuji Baifeng Pills: [Specifications] Each 100 grains weight l2 g; [Packing] 36g per bottle; [Dosage] 1 6g, 2 times a day. Most patients do not know how many pills are 6 g. It is extremely inconvenient to remove 50 pills (equivalent to 6 g) of pills from the bottle. Another example is Liu Wei Di Huang Wan: [Specification] Each 23 pills weighs 1 g; [Packing] 112.5 g per bag, 1 bag per iron box; [Dosage] 1 9 g, 2 times a day. How inconvenient it is to remove 207 pills (equivalent to 9 g) each time! It is recommended that manufacturers use single-dose packaging for clinical and patient use. Before changing to single-dose packaging, instructions for adding doses should be added to the instructions for use of the drug, and dosers should be available to facilitate administration.
2. Drug packaging and medication psychology
Drugs belong to special commodities. In addition to attaching importance to their quality and application, from the standpoint of commercialization, the degree of scientific and modernization of pharmaceutical packaging will contribute to the display of product quality and production levels to some extent. Good pharmaceutical packaging is pleasing to the eye, giving people a good drug image, giving people a strong sense of trust in their efficacy, and greatly improving their compliance with medications. The poor quality of packaging makes people doubt their quality and efficacy. Drug packaging, including decoration design, artwork, colors, patterns, trademarks, etc. will produce the psychological effects of drugs. Colors and patterns can cause the association of the patient. For example, the model of the stomach on the box is thought to be a medicine for treating stomach problems. Red is associated with excitement and excitement, and blue is associated with coldness and quietness. Therefore, the packaging of central stimulant drugs should be based on red color, and the packaging of antipyretic analgesics should be based on blue color.
3. Drug packaging and drug safety
3.1 The packaging materials and medications are safe and easy to absorb moisture and deterioration of the drug should be used glass bottles not suitable plastic bottles, drugs that need to be protected from light should not be packaged in aluminum or transparent glass bottles, but the use of aluminum foil / aluminum foil or brown Glass bottle packaging. Mineral oils, vegetable oils, oil-soluble solvents, and topical tinctures should not be used in polyethylene plastic bottles, because the soluble ethylene monomers are potentially harmful to the human body. The inner packaging materials and containers (packaging materials) directly contacting drugs shall be tested for stability according to their materials, and the compatibility of the packaging materials and the drugs shall be examined.
3.2 Development of packaging methods and safe packaging The development of pharmaceutical packaging technology has promoted the development of the pharmaceutical industry. The following types of packaging methods are widely used in the pharmaceutical industry and are rapidly developing as pharmaceutical packaging forms. They are gradually replacing traditional packaging methods to become pharmaceutical packaging. The mainstream, especially in terms of drug safety, has a clear advantage.
1 Fully automatic blister package J: The entire process is completed at one time from the formation of the blister, the filling of the drug, the sealing, the molding of the outer carton, the folding and insertion of the manual, the sealing of the blister card holder, and the sealing of the carton. . Advanced models also have a number of safety detection devices, including the identification and detection of packaging boxes and instructions, to the greatest degree to ensure the safety of pharmaceutical packaging.
2 Infusion soft bag packaging: Compared with the traditional glass bottles, it is light, not afraid of collision, avoiding collisions and causing invisible laceration to cause liquid pollution; completely closed packaging, there is no phenomenon of bottle loose, cracks, etc.; flexibility is strong, By relying on its own gravitational force to force the liquid droplets out, there is no need to form an air circuit to avoid dust and microorganisms in the air causing infusion contamination.
3 Packing methods for medications for specific groups of people: For children's medicines, the safety bottle with hard-to-open safety cover should be used for the package. The complicated opening method can prevent children from opening the bottle by themselves and overdose; The elderly or certain diseases such as Parkinson's disease, heart disease The packaging of drugs used by patients and the like should be easy to open and easy to access, so as to ensure the timely and safe use of drugs. It is advisable that the bottle size be held by the palm of an adult hand.
3.3 Labels, instructions and drug safety labels, instructions are the main source for doctors and patients to understand drug information, and are the basis for scientific and safe drug use. Therefore, it should be truly detailed, scientific and easy to understand, especially the adverse drug reactions should be listed in detail, and there should be instructions for safe use. The author in the medication consultation found that some patients did not first remove the outer shell of wax when the first use of glycerin suppository directly lead to the treatment of anal failure: Some people are overwhelmed with the outer wax shell when taking Chinese medicine honey pill. Because these medicines do not have any instructions such as "remove the wax shell before use (taking)". Therefore, manufacturers are advised to add text or pictorial descriptions in the drug use instructions for safe drug use by patients. When an enterprise uses a trade name, it must clearly and prominently mark its common name so as not to inconvenience the use of the drug and avoid repeated drug use. Some medicines have too large a commodity name and the common name is too small to comply with the requirement that the ratio of the common name to the name of a commodity name should be ≥1:2. This phenomenon should be promptly corrected.
3.4 Packaging signs, anti-counterfeit signs, and safe packaging signs for drugs refer to special signs such as "Hemp," "fine," "poison," "release," and "external," "over-the-counter (OTC)," and must be printed on the packaging, labels, and instructions. Specified signs to facilitate drug users to identify drugs and facilitate special management to ensure drug safety
all. The use of bar code technology and anti-counterfeiting marks is not only a means of protecting goods from counterfeiting, but also has positive significance for patients' comfort and safe drug use.
4. Effectiveness of drug packaging and medication
4.1 Packaging Protection to Ensure the Effectiveness of Drugs Drugs undergo a long period of time during production, transportation, storage, and use. Due to improper packaging, the physical and chemical properties of drugs may be changed, and drugs may be degraded, failed, and adversely affected. The protective functions of pharmaceutical packaging mainly include the following two aspects:
1 barrier function, packaging can ensure that the container does not penetrate the drug, no leakage, but also can block the outside air, light, moisture, heat, foreign matter and micro-organisms and drug contact;
2 Buffering function, packaging can prevent the medicine from being shocked, impacted and squeezed by various external forces during transportation and storage. Therefore, drug packaging should consider the protection function as the primary factor to ensure the quality and efficacy of the drug. The author's investigation found that the vitamin C injection produced by a certain manufacturer was not protected from light (such as the box lined with black paper), resulting in failure of the drug to change color within the validity period. There are also many manufacturers who are interested in increasing the size of the packaging containers (bottles or boxes) so that the volume of the medicines only occupies a small part of the container volume. This practice is apt to give the impression that the larger packages contain more drugs. In fact, this is unreasonable. First, a large amount of drug packaging material is wasted, and the volume of storage and transportation is increased. Second, the space outside the drug in the container is too large, which increases the chance for drugs to collide with each other. The quality is extremely unfavorable. It is recommended that manufacturers take a scientific and rigorous attitude towards the packaging of drugs and give full play to the protection functions of packaging to drugs to ensure the quality and efficacy of drugs.
4.2 Single-dose packaging helps to ensure the efficacy of drugs The traditional packaging of 100 tablets or even 500 tablets of each drug, once opened, the tablets are susceptible to deterioration by the influence of water, oxygen, and microorganisms in the air, resulting in drug degradation during the effective period. Even failed. The single-dose packaging of aluminum foil or plastic foil reduces the contamination of the dispensing and dispensing process and is beneficial to the quality and efficacy of drugs.
5. Economy of drug packaging and medication
The costs of raw materials, power, and production personnel's wages used for pharmaceutical production constitute the cost of the medicine. The packaging cost is a part of the cost of the drug, and its proportion should be appropriate. Based on the physicochemical properties of the drug and the characteristics of the packaging materials, comprehensive consideration should be given to cost and price factors, and proper packaging materials and packaging methods should be selected. Packaging directly affects the economics of medication for patients. For drugs that need to be used for a long time, such as the antituberculosis drugs isoniazid and rifampicin, the use of glass bottles is more reasonable and cost-effective than aluminum-plastic single-dose packaging. For children's antipyretic drugs such as certain drops or oral solution, 15 mL or even 100 mL per bottle, no need to use low heat, use only when high heat, and some use 1 or 2 times to fever, the remaining liquid for a long time had to Discarded, causing waste of drug resources, so a single-dose package is more appropriate.