New Technologies In Fill-Finish May Bring Brand Loyalty Along With Improved Patient Safety

By Kate Hammeke, Director of Marketing Intelligence, Nice Insight

In January 2014, Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) called on drug makers, the FDA, and the Consumer Product Safety Commission to help reduce the number of emergency room visits among children who are accidentally given the wrong dosage. He argues that implementing flow-restricting devices on liquid formulations could prevent approximately 10,000 emergency room visits each year and would cost only a matter of cents per bottle.

While Schumer is pushing for the legislature to mandate further measures to protect children, kids are not the only population that would benefit from improved delivery methods aimed at precise doses. A recent survey among biopharmaceutical companies that engage CMO services showed that 73 percent of these businesses offer formulations for special needs patients, 53 percent offer pediatric formulations, and 50 percent offer geriatric formulations. Each of these populations is at risk for inaccurate dosing, and while a flow restrictor is a prospective means to reduce medicating inaccuracies, there are better technologies becoming available.