Fintan Moore delivers a quick cut-out-and-keep guide for the folks who design packaging for pharmaceuticals
I assume that the packaging for any medication being launched onto the market is the result
of a creative process involving sales and marketing people in an office somewhere. There might even be a specific ‘Packaging-Planning Department’. I know as little about the inner workings of pharmaceutical companies as they know about the inside of my dispensary.
This unfortunately means that the packaging-planners presumably sit around brain-storming different ideas without ever showing these ideas to an ignoramus like me. My role in all this as a community pharmacist is merely to take the new offering out of the wholesaler’s tote and say, ‘Who the hell designed this?’ I could try to set up my own ‘Packaging Consultancy’ company, but that would require time, effort and a brass neck, so I’ll just lay out a few pointers here as a cut-out-and-keep guide for anybody interested.
Firstly, size matters. My dispensary shelves are already crammed to the gills with the umpteen different brands and generics now available.
I do not need any new products arriving in packs that are near big enough to hold a pair of shoes.
Colour match. If a generic is being launched with the intent to supplant a brand, then the sensible thing to do is to have the tablet/capsule colour of each strength match that of the brand. Familiarity aids patient acceptance.
Get into shape. If the branded tablet is round, then make the generic tablet round. If it’s oval, then make it oval.
Clarity matters. For all products — use a different colour print for each strength of a product. Preferably use a different size of box for each also.
Look at the ending. If the logical way for a pack to lie on a dispensary shelf is flat with its end facing you, then having a blank end is unhelpful. Equally, having just the FMD code with no writing is also useless.
Day-to-day. If a branded product has the days of the week printed on the foil strip, then the smart move for a generic company is to replicate this. Most patients don’t care either way, but the minority who do care find it really helpful, so why not look after them?
That’s my lot for now. Feel free to add your own suggestions to the list and pass it to the relevant sales reps. They can pass it off as their own work and buy you lunch as a thank you.
Out to lunch
A common theme that crops up in online discussions in pharmacist forums or more commonly nowadays in WhatsApp groups, is that people will voice reasons for disgruntlement.
Everybody’s always going to be unhappy about something. Nobody likes the HSE, especially the PCRS. Employers complain about expenses,
For all products
— use a different colour print for each strength of a product
difficulties in getting or holding onto staff, non-payment of claims by the HSE, and the inadequate fees received when we do get paid. Employee pharmacists complain about being overworked with inadequate support staff, insufficient rest periods, long days, late evenings, weekend work, unpleasant customers, and a very frequent problem is the absence of a proper (or any) lunch break.
Personally, I think that not having a dedicated lunch break for staff is a bad idea, but I will put my hands up here and confess that I’m a relatively recent convert on this. I have owned my own pharmacy since 1999 and we were open through lunch every day until April 2020. During those years, technicians and other support staff tended to get an okay uninterrupted break because they could cover for each other, but we generally only had a single pharmacist, and on a busy day they ended up with just a snack grabbed ‘on the go’.
Then when Covid hit, the pharmacy got extra busy, with way more hassle and stress, so I started dropping the shutter for an hour between 1pm and 2pm. It let all of us decompress and eat in peace… and it was like a mini holiday.
The funny thing about this is that I assumed the ‘lost’ hour would cost me money. I continued to pay everybody for the hour that we were closed because I didn’t want to cut wages, and I still pay for that hour. In my head I’m not ‘paying people to eat’ — I’m paying them to be mentally and physically fresher as they approach the end of the day, rather than running on empty.
It’s lot easier to successfully handle a patient interaction when you’re not knackered. I also reckoned that the lost hour of business would affect turnover, but it didn’t, or only to an imperceptible degree if it did. Depending on location, it might not be feasible for every pharmacy but in my humble opinion, if you can shut completely for an hour, or even 30 minutes, then it’s well worth it.
Happy humbug
As another Christmas rolls ever closer, I’ve learned over the years that resistance is futile. I avoid as much ‘voluntary’ festive stuff as I can get away with, but the casting vote on everything Christmassy seems to lie with the people who somehow genuinely like it.
It’s nice to spend time with family, but outside of that, the compulsory gaiety and the godawful music make it a tough time for the Grinches of the world. On the plus side, we do have whiskey and at least day-drinking at Christmas is socially acceptable.
Have fun, folks!
Fintan Moore graduated as a pharmacist in 1990 from TCD and currently runs a pharmacy in Clondalkin. His email address is: greenparkpharmacy @gmail.com.
