The verdict is in: blister packs may be a safer bet for packaging your medication. In the U.S. and sometimes in Canada, however, medications are dispensed as loose pills.
According to the FDA, over 1.3 million people are injured each year due to medication mistakes, which include dispensing errors in U.S. hospitals and pharmacies. As discussed in a blogpost by Roger Bate, an economist at the American Enterprise Institute, it may be safer to receive your medications in blister packs, whether dispensed locally or from an international pharmacy by mail, and the FDA seems to agree.
The process of transferring pills at the pharmacy from a large container into a smaller pill bottle for final dispensing opens the door to human errors, ones that are avoided by dispensing medication in blister packs.
The FDA supports use of blister packs to tackle the problem:
“Thoughtful use of unit-of-use container closures (e.g., blister packaging, calendar packaging, sachets, and pouches) that can be dispensed intact to patients may help to reduce medication errors. Such packaging may minimize certain medication dispensing errors that can occur when repackaging from a bulk container into patient-specific containers.”
For those of you who have ordered medications internationally, particularly from Australia, India, New Zealand, Singapore or Turkey, you know that the pills come in the original manufacturer’s packaging.
International online pharmacies in the PharmacyChecker Verification Program mostly dispense medications in line with FDA’s blister pack recommendation.
Blister packs increase the already high price of medication. To receive a three month supply in blister packs. Why manufacturers do not pack medication in larger containers, saving thousands of dollars a year? Can you imagine a 90 day supply in blister packs of ten pills?
Hi, Luis. For small numbers of loose pills, you make a very good point. Our focus is on the relative safety of blister packs vs. loose pill dispensing and FDA has recommended blister packs as one way to provide more safety. In terms of savings, people will almost always find lower-priced brand medication internationally vs. the U.S., often ones dispensed in blister packs.
At Costco you can buy a BAYERS 500, 325mg aspirin pills, in one container, for US$14.00. At the Pharmacy they sell in blister packs, at a much higher price.
Specialty packaging in the U.S. typically requires a pharmacy to package the medications. Bayer Aspirin is sold over-the-counter (OTC)- and pricing of OTC vs prescription medications is different. Internationally, manufacturers typically package medications in blister packs and the prices of prescription medications internationally are lower the in the U.S. despite the specialty packaging used by manufacturers for distribution to other countries.
Hi Lucia, I am talking about prescription . The example I used on Bayer’s aspirin, may not have been the best one. But I have a friend in a non USA Country, who has been prescribed aspirin, one 325mg pill per day, and he is dispensed that in blister packages. The cost to him is huge compared to the one I buy for him OTC in the USA. And he has a lot of other prescriptions, which I cannot buy for him, that he and his wife must take dally, that are only dispensed in blisters, at an outrageously high price. Who is making the money, the laboratory or the packaging industry?
I’m sorry to hear that. Perhaps your friend and his wife could benefit from online pharmacies verified by PharmacyChecker–to at least get some financial relief. Compare prices here: http://pharmacychecker.com/
Although convenient, Blister packs are a pain to use,,,,,many don’t open easily and can cause the pill to go flying across the room. Now you have a dirty pill and it is under a piece of furniture…..if you can even find it.
How do blister packs keep the pharmacist from putting the wrong blister pack in your sack??
Hi Julie – Blister packs from PharmacyChecker-accredited pharmacies are from the manufacturer, eliminating a room for error like a US pharmacy where technicians count out each tablet. These blister packs are labeled with the drug name and strength. In addition to that, pharmacies will place another patient prescription label on the medication.
Hi Julie
Manufacturers make it harder in a manner of security, make it harder for a young children to push out pills.
Blister original packaging are more efficient for pharmacist, also for patients making it ease to follow therapy. More secure, protection against counterfeiting and the information about the product in the box.