How stable are medicines moved from original packs into compliance aids?
The use of compliance aids has increased in both primary and secondary care over recent years.
Compliance aids aim to act as a reminder for patients to take their medicines, nabling them to manage their own often complex and confusing drug regimens. They also act as a visual prompt for carers, indicating that patients have taken their medicines,or at least removed them from the
device.
The use of these aids involves the transfer of medicines from the manufacturer’s original packaging to the compliance aid. The original packaging is designed to protect the contents to appropriate pharmacopoeial and quality standards for a variety of criteria, eg, water vapour transmission, as required in the product licence.
However, the compliance aid cannot guarantee the same level of protection.Many systems are not disposable and arefrequently reused without cleaning. The hazardsassociated with physical, chemical andmicrobiological cross-contamination couldbe a major risk factor. All other dispensingcontainers are designed for single use.Compliance aids have limited availablespace for each dose, are not airtight and offerless moisture and light protection than originalpacks.
Doubts are raised as to the stabilityof medicines that have been transferred tocompliance aids: is there a deterioration inquality and can this result in a reduction ofefficacy to an unacceptable level?
To read the full article, download the attached PDF.
Citation: The Pharmaceutical Journal URI: 10990832
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