The Healthcare Compliance Packaging Council (HCPC) is celebrating its 25th year of promoting the greater use of compliance-prompting packaging to improve patient adherence and patient outcomes. In honor of this milestone, the HCPC is adding a student compliance package design category to its industry respected Compliance Package of the Year competition. HCPC’s Compliance Package of the Year competition has recognized leading pharmaceutical compliance-prompting packaging since 1995 and is open to all firms involved in compliance/patient reminder pharmaceutical packaging. Now, however, in addition to accepting compliance-prompting packaging entries introduced in the 2015 market year from pharmaceutical manufacturers and suppliers, the HCPC will also be accepting design entries from undergraduate and graduate students of packaging schools and/or schools of pharmacy.

“Compliance-prompting packaging, also known as patient reminder packaging, has a positive proven track record in improving patient adherence”, says Walt Berghahn, HCPC executive director. “Over two decades of research studies, reviewed in our organization’s whitepaper, highlight the statistically significant increase in patient adherence when prescriptions are delivered in calendarized, compliance-prompting packaging. It’s a shame with all the innovative technologies we have at our fingertips today that U.S. prescription packaging has been largely untouched for close to six decades. Most patients still receive their acute care and maintenance prescriptions in an amber vial that offers no support for medication adherence! It’s time to get our future packaging employees and pharmacists thinking ‘outside the vial’ to create adherence packaging tools that are patient-centric and increase patient and/or caregiver engagement.”

Entries from industry will be accepted now through February 29, 2016. Student concept outlines will be due November 30th, 2015 for review by the judges with finished prototypes or 3-D renderings due Feb. 29, 2016. The HCPC will recognize the Compliance Package of the Year Winners at its annual conference on adherence packaging, RxAdherence 2016, April 12th, 2016 at the Wyndham Hamilton Park Hotel & Conference Center, Florham Park, New Jersey. This annual industry leading conference is now in its 24th year and is being co-sponsored by Healthcare Packaging and Packaging World.

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 2015; and 3) not require drug products to be repackaged by patients and 4) be in a child-resistant format, if intended for home use, per CPSC guidelines. Qualifying packages for the student competition follow similar guidelines, with the exception of commercial availability, and also require the concepts’ ease of manufacture and commercially viability. More detailed rules and guidelines are available on the HCPC website, www.hcpconline.org.

A panel of judges will review each qualifying package and – based on numerical scores awarded by the judges – one commercial package will be named HCPC’s 2015 Compliance Package of the Year and three other industry packages will be declared First Runner-Up, Second Runner-Up and Most Innovative Design, based on the judges’ scores. The highest scoring student entry will be named as HCPC Compliance Package of the Year Student Winner and will receive award(s) at the RxAdherence conference. The next two highest scores will receive HCPC Compliance Package of the Year Certificates of Merit. The winning student entry will receive a $1,000 scholarship and the second place winning entry will receive $500. All entrants receive the judges’ feedback on their designs.

Winning entries will receive additional publicity within the Council’s enewsletter, RxAdherence News, on the HCPC website, www.hcpconline.org, and through anticipated coverage by the trade press. Complete competition guidelines and an official entry form are available by visiting www.hcpconline.org or by contacting the HCPC office.