Indian Institute of Packaging says expiry date on each tablet

The news of Indian Institute of Packaging (IIP), an autonomous body under the Ministry of Commerce, taking up the matter of printing expiry dates behind each tablets, may have caused a flutter among the pharmaceutical companies because of the cost factor, there are positive reactions from the general public and print firms reports PrintWeek India.

 

“Printing of expiry dates of each pill will be impossible to carry out and we are not just talking about the cost factor and reading being difficult to decipher, printing it in red, along the length of the strip, preferable on either side, will be a good idea,” said one response.

 

At present, the expiry date is printed in one corner of the strip along with the batch number and date of manufacturing. But when Ahmedabad-based Zudus Cadilla sent in their entry of Inditel tablets for the IndiaStar 2014 event, with each pocket containing tablet printed with details of product name and expiry, IIP’s director, NC Saha saw this as an opportunity to promote the initiative.

 

Saha says, there are two reasons, why the initiative needs to be promoted. “One, once you start taking the tables off, it is difficult to read the expiry date and batch numbers. This will result in increased efficiency of medicines in curing diseases. Two, Zydus has implemented this and has received overwhelming response.”

 

In a study conducted by students of MGM Medical College in Indore, last March, showed that an alarming number of Indore’s elderly people do not check expiry date of medicine before consuming them, almost every elderly member who were surveyed suggested that the expiry dates of medicines should be printed in bigger size number and in different colour. Printing bigger sizes expiry dates is an idea, this however, does not eliminate the problems mentioned above.

 

Either ways, it has vindicated IIP’s stand that the issue of expiry date needs to be tackled.  While implementing this Zydus initiative would inflate the printing cost, Saha says, Zydus has done this as part of their CSR initiative. “The industry has to wake up to these basic problems, and such initiatives can easily be absorbed by their CSR initiative.”

 

IIP, which works closely with the Pharmaceutical Export Promotion Council of India, plans to take this up with the policy makers.

 

Needless to say, print industry sees this as a boost to its business. “Bigger sizes, along the length of the strip or on sides, it all means more print,” said a print company who specialises in pharma print.

 

For details visit: http://www.printweek.in/News/392690,iips-saha-says-print-expiry-date-on-each-tablet.aspx