Investigation Regarding Barcode Display on Medical Drug Aluminum Pillow Packaging

Eventually, medicines may be administered in pillow packaging more frequently because of the need for moisture resistance in accordance with SDG specifications. Additionally, barcodes are important to prevent misuse and ensure traceability. This study aimed to examine the necessity of barcodes on packaging to understand the precautions, such as moisture resistance indicated on widely used aluminum pillow packaging, and the actual dispensing status of aluminum pillow packaging units. For the drugs adopted by our hospital (612 items), we calculated the proportion of prescriptions for weekly sheets (W packaging) that can be dispensed in aluminum pillow packaging for 1 year starting on March 2022 and investigated the packaging format and state of written precautions. A total of 66.7％ (32/48 agents) of aluminum pillow packaging without a barcode had warnings, such as moisture-proofing. Of these, 50.0％ (16/32) were dispensed in aluminum pillow packaging. Conversely, 12.5％ (6/48 drugs) of aluminum pillow packaging without barcodes contained a high percentage of prescriptions (≥25％) that could be dispensed as pillows, although there were no warnings, such as moisture-proofing. These drugs included the high-priced antitumor drugs Alecensa®, Xeloda®, Nexavar®, and Extandin®. Approximately 50％ of all W packaging is dispensed in aluminum pillow packaging; therefore, we believe that barcodes could be used for moisture-proofing and medical safety reasons.