BeeBetter single-use pouch aims to ‘help the medicine go down’

By putting patients at the center of its design development, this conceptual pouch employs shape and a dispensing device to help with medication delivery and adherence.

By putting patients at the center of its design development, this conceptual pouch employs shape and a dispensing device to help with medication delivery and adherence.
By putting patients at the center of its design development, this conceptual pouch employs shape and a dispensing device to help with medication delivery and adherence.

“A Spoonful of Sugar” is a famous song performed by Julie Andrews’ character in the classic 1964 Walt Disney musical film “Mary Poppins.” Now, a technology and product design firm called Cambridge Design Partnership (CDP) has introduced a concept called The BeeBetter single-use pouch that “helps the medicine go down.”

Although not yet in use commercially, BeeBetter employs what CDP calls “an intuitive design coupled with an injection of fun—resulting in a single-use medicine pouch that is a world away from traditional pharmaceutical packaging.” BeeBetter uses a hexagonal shape to tout the bee/honeycomb connection, but CDP says different pouch shapes could be used.

Pouch material composition, structural options, thickness, barrier properties, etc., could be developed to meet specific customer application needs. For example, shapes can be amended to the extent that material and container/closure restrictions allow. From an equipment perspective, CDP says if a second formulation behind the frangible seal is added, minor equipment adjustments or additional filling steps may be necessary.

To use the BeeBetter pouch, a patient pushes on a childproof mouthpiece, which then pops up ready for use. The correct amount of medication is dispensed as the user squeezes the pack and sucks on the mouthpiece. “And there’s a sweet surprise at the end—in the form of a spoonful of honey—to encourage the patient to finish the whole dose,” according to CDP.

The company developed hexagonally shaped pouches for the recent Pharmapack Europe show in Paris. These samples measured 73 mm (2.87 in.) H x 86 mm (3.38 in.) W x 19 mm (.75 in.) D. CDP says these pouches could hold about 30 mL of product in a stand-up form, and about 10 mL in a sachet format.

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