‘Advanced feature to ensure drug release at prescribed time’
| Date :21-Jan-2023 |
By Kartik Lokhande
IF YOU are busy with activity at the time of taking prescribed medicine, you may not need to carry medicine along or worry. You can simply pop the medicine while leaving early morning, and the medicine will get released in a regulated manner at the prescribed time of dosage. This is the latest advancement in pharmaceutical industry.
One of the American companies has developed this advanced feature in sustained release medicine, and an Indian company is working on research and development in this regard, said Chakravarthi AVPS, Global Ambassador, World Packaging Organisation. Speaking to ‘The Hitavada’ on the sidelines of the 72nd Indian Pharmaceutical Congress at Rashtrasant Tukadoji Maharaj Nagpur University campus here on Friday, Chakravarthi revealed this interesting facet of advancement in the industry.
“If a drug is prescribed to you every six hours, and you skip a dose, it may have consequences. So, now, sort of regulated release medicines are being developed, and packaging industry plays a major role in it,” said Chakravarthi AVPS. Explaining the concept, he said that those having hypertension forgetting a dose could lead to disturbed behaviour. In such cases, as in the case of children who tend to forget or skip medicine doses, the improvement in sustained release drug may prove to be a ‘big boon’. “Such medicines once consumed may release at precribed dose-timing. Future belongs to such medicines,” he said with a sparkle in eyes.
Speaking about future of medicine and healthcare, the Global Ambassador of World Packaging Organisation shared that integration of augmented reality into the system held a great promise. “With use of this, the first dose captures your body condition and sends it to manufacturer and doctor, who then assess how your body will react to next dose,” he added.
In future, Cell Therapy and Gene Therapy will make medical industry ‘more preventive in nature than one focussed on cure’, felt Chakravarthi. Citing example of countries like Finland and Norway, he elaborated that there complete body scan of all citizens was done and diagnosis was done. “This will lead to pre-empting of diseases. Thus, we will be able to develop the cure before the disease,” he said. But, with lot of innovations, the job of physicians will become very important.
Speaking of physicians and highlighting the role of packaging of medicines, Chakravarthi made an interesting statement: “Packaging is your second physician.” Asked to elaborate, he observed that physician inform the patients about drug taken, its composition, contra-indication, effect on body etc. “However, final contact between drug and patient is packaging only. There is no doctor, researcher etc in between. Hence, if there are innovations in packaging, drug quality and patient behaviour can both change positively,” he added with a smile.