The Birth of Blister Packaging
The Birth of Blister Packaging
There is a great deal of discussion as to what was the first pharmaceutical blister package. Part of this controversy depends on one’s definition of a blister package. Blister packaging consists of several components that interact to accomplish the packaging of an oral solid dose medicine: the design of the blister and blister card, the materials that are used for the cavity or pocket and lidding, and the machines and tools that form the cavity or pocket, fill the product, and seal the lidding film to the blister. One key element: how does one get the medicine out of the blister. Indeed, that element influences the answer as to what was the first pharmaceutical blister package.
before The Pill?
As contraceptives gained popularity the limitations of a bottle in assisting women to take contraceptives at the correct time became painfully clear and the impetus for the development of blister packages (the calendar pack). Three blister packages for contraceptives entered the market at about the same time: Organon’s Lyndiol, Schering AG’s Anovlar, and Ortho’s Novum. While it is unclear as to the exact dates these packages entered the market, Hassia’s machine (used by Schering) entered first, followed by Höfliger & Karg’s.
Timelines and pictures of early packaging as well as a transcript of the movie The Pill (produced as part of The American Experience) can be found at PBS’s site.
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