A magnificent help in reading tiny drug dosage instructions

A small magnifying glass incorporated into pharmaceutical packaging to help consumers read dosage instructions and save billions of pounds is being brought to market thanks to a seed investment of £30,000 from NESTA (the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts).

Drug instructions on bottles need to be small to fit into a confined space that also incorporates product and manufacturing information including batch details and dates. With 30% of those taking prescription drugs being over retirement age it is easy to see how there is a problem with people misreading instructions and not taking the right dosage.

Magnicap addresses this problem and could save economies across the globe billions, with the mis-administration of drugs costing the US economy alone over $100bn a year.

Magnicap is a brilliantly simple packaging concept – a magnifying glass is attached to bottles, boxes or any other type of packaging. However, the technology has only recently become available to mould a magnifying glass on a lid in a cost effective, easy way. The use of single shot injection moulding means that the lid and the magnifying glass can be moulded in one shot – minimising the additional cost and disruption to the existing manufacturing process.

Mark White, Director of Invention and Innovation at NESTA, said:
“NESTA looks to identify new ideas with world class potential and give them the right sort of risk capital and assistance to grow. The global pharmaceutical industry faces a variety of consumer trends in the coming years, from increased use of medications and an aging population to more home-based care and greater awareness of the risk of medical errors. MagniCap is ideally placed to assist the sector with any of these issues as they arise and this injection of risk capital from NESTA will help the company to grow and commercialise.”

Tim Tyson, President & CEO, Valeant Pharmaceuticals, said:
“Magnicap offers a great solution for those who have difficulty reading the small print on pharma packaging. I would recommend that every pharmaceutical company looks very closley at this and ask the question ’could this make life a little better for these customers?’ My belief – absolutely!”

Brian Lawson, Manufacturing Director of Rosemont Pharmaceuticals, said:
“The pharmaceutical industry knows that it’s critical to ensure that patients, pharmacists and carers can read dosing and other safety critical product information. Magnicap is a simple, low cost way of enabling this, in an area of the business where some of the technical challenges are as yet unmet by existing solutions.”