Compliance Package of the Year competition opens up
HCPC is now accepting entries for its annual award
The Healthcare Compliance Packaging Council (HCPC), the trade association of packagers and suppliers of unit-dose packaging, blister cards and other forms of compliance packaging, is now accepting entries for its Package of the Year award. Entries are being accepted through June 29. Awards for packages in the 2017 and 2018 market years will be presented at the HCPC’s Spring 2019 members meeting taking place in Charleston, VA.
While there is no fee or other monetary requirements to participate, qualifying packages for the Compliance Package of the Year category must: 1) be in a compliance-prompting format with at least one patient-adherence assistance feature; 2) have been commercially available – anywhere in the world – during 2017; 3) not require drug products to be repackaged by patients and 4) be in a child-resistant format, if intended for home use, per guidelines from the Consumer Products Safety Commission. A panel of judges will review each qualifying package and name one commercial package as HCPC’s 2017 Compliance Package of the Year, two runners-up, and a Most Innovative Design.
“Compliance-prompting packaging has a proven track record in improving patient adherence,” stated Walt Berghahn, HCPC executive director. This track record was shared with the FDA and other stakeholders late last year when the FDA hosted a workshop, Packaging, Storage, and Disposal Options to Enhance Opioid Safety. Following this workshop, FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb stated “. . . the FDA is supporting the use of blister packaging to stem the nation’s opioid crisis by promoting shorter duration initial prescriptions by doctors.”
Complete competition guidelines and an official entry form are available by visiting www.hcpconline.org or by contacting the HCPC office at 804 338 5778.
