While self-injection is an ongoing trend in the pharmaceutical industry – more than 3.5 prefilled auto-injectors are produced worldwide each year – a recent study by the University of Texas Medical Branch found that a whopping 84 percent of patients fail to properly self-inject. In a bid to boost patient compliance, more and more pharmaceutical manufacturers are investing in patient-centric training tools including specially adapted syringe packaging designs.
Boosting patient confidence and compliance
As most patients, who are often elderly, fail to self-inject simply because they have forgotten how to or because they suffer from anxiety or a lack of self-confidence, pharmaceutical companies have set out to turn their packaging designs into educational resources that reduce training decay while also decreasing anxiety and boosting patient confidence in at least three different ways:1. Syringe packaging stimulating multiple senses
Studies have shown that the more senses a packaging design triggers, the stronger its message is encoded in the brain. Hence, manufacturers are increasingly wrapping prefilled auto-injectors in packaging that not only consists of visuals but also includes auditory scripts.2. Anticipating common mistakes
Including technology in pharmaceutical packaging designs also enables companies to highlight specific sequences of the administration process and correct patients before they make a mistake. One commonly made error which most manufacturers anticipate to is so-called ‘wet injection’, where patients fail to administer the full dose. To ensure patients receive the correct dose, manufacturers include dose completion signals in the form of visual, tactile or audible feedback or a combination.- Did you know? Wet injections comprise 76 percent of all self-injection errors.