Refillable Compact "Dialpak" Dispenses Daily Dose of Ortho Tri-Cyclen

Author: Bernard Abrams
Issue: Feb, 2000

Ortho-McNeil oral contraceptives get first new dispenser in 21 years, then progress into another compact with flashy style, durability for multiple uses, and privacy for consumers. Sometimes the sound of silence is mistaken for inertia. It's probably in human nature to take seriously the adage: if it isn't broken, don't fix it. Ortho-McNeil begs to differ. Even though it cites statistics that about four of 10 women who take the Pill use its Ortho Dialpak(r) dispenser, there's no share of market that can't be improved.

So, after 21 years and since the summer of '99, the dispenser's third generation is reality. And with its introduction last month of the Ortho Personal, the Raritan, NJ-based marketer of prescription oral contraceptives is expanding its options for women by a factor of six while doubling up on discretion.

Tablets packaged in the new Dialpak are Ortho Tri-Cyclen and Ortho-Cyclen (both norgestimate/ethynil estradiol) and seven other brands. Acceptance of the refillable Dialpak through its more cosmetic appearance, the marketer asserts, "will save 1.46 million pounds of plastic" if women reuse the compact for one year rather than discarding it after use each month.

Larry Lambelet, Ortho-McNeil principal engineer, shares his optimism with PD that this will happen. "We put an enormous amount of research into the compact to maintain its convenience and made it universal for all category products and put-ups."

In fact, the program for Dialpak and its offspring "involves a reversal of normal procedures. Usually we have a product for which we make a package and then sell it. this time, we used research to determine what people want and then figured out how to make it."

Shopping list

Sharing the upper levels of the shopping list of package requirements are protection of product during the 28-day cycle; better physician acceptance; more discreet, feminine and ergonomic design and any-day startup without resorting to labels or special tools. Plus, a more universal structure that would permit internal efficiencies, "since we knew this was going to be a pretty expensive project," he says.

The Dialpak compact, now a standard prepack for all products, is a hinged unit designed by Martha Davis whose firm, Able Design, is now merged with Razorfish. Additional design for manufacturability and assembly of the components comes from Gary McQuay. The compact is injection-molded of high impact polystyrene by Tech Group. Its cover is plain; an underside emboss centers on the Ortho logotype and includes the message, "use with Ortho refills only."

Molded with a single aperture for one push-through oblong tablet, the base holds in place a 2-piece ratcheted circular device screened with a month's worth of days. An arrow on a spindle-mounted fixed inner indicates each day's dose; turning the outer segment results in an audible click.

Fixed in the base is a flexible blue injection-molded platform, made by Tech of medium-density PS with 28 apertures and two locking nibs, which accepts the dougnut-shaped blister that Ortho-McNeil produces in-house of vinyl and coated foil, the same as with the previous Dialpak. The empty blister pulls out easily for replacement. A decorative touch is hot-stamping in gold by Permanent Label.

The opaque compact, protecting the tablets from light and physical damage, is itself well-protected, Lambelet notes. There are three design patents based on its distinctive appearance, plus an additional four utility patents for novel structural components.

Though not inexpensive to produce, he says, the new Dialpak represents significant savings over the package it succeeds. Along with materials savings are those in process and inventory economies, since it is refillable and universal.

Because it is refillable, line automation is simplified, with two packaging lines replacing five required earlier. Efficient design and automation technologies reduce direct labor on the surviving two packaging lines, and quality improvements result from in-line inspection and verification systems.

Greater flexibility

The marketer moves the package to a new level with the introduction last month of the sleek, elegant Ortho Personal [Pak.sup.TM]. The Personal [Pak.sup.TM] is molded to exactly the same dimensions as Dialpak. But there are important differences related to flexibility, in several senses of the word.

Presented as an optional, reusable dispenser that is fashionably discrete, the gleaming black Personal Pak carries a $4.95 price plus $1.50 shipping cost and can be ordered from the company's phone number or website. Each prescription refill will be accompanied by an order form, which will also be inserted in product samples distributed through healthcare professionals' offices, assuring maximal exposure for the new dispenser.

Along with its color, the Personal Pak differs from Dialpak in the selection of materials and decoration. It is injection-molded of acrylonitrile butadiene styrene by West Pharmaceutical Services. But the two halves go their separate ways before uniting on the Ortho-McNeil packaging lines.

The covers travel to Permanent Label and ColorWorks for decoration in one of six total graphic designs. At Permanent Label, they are gold hot-stamped or receive thermal-transfer labels, process-printed up to five colors. These are then shipped to ColorWorks.

At this supplier, several of the designs are applied by an interesting decorative technique known as [HydroGraFix.sup.TM]. According to a ColorWorks spokesperson, this method has been used for some time in such applications as permanent decoration of automobile instruments and other interior trim and, more recently, telephone customization.

Several of the Personal Pak designs involving continuous patterns are applied by this technique, which uses a clear water-soluble film printed up to four colors via rotogravure. With its carrier, the rigid printed film is set in a tank of warm water; it becomes flexible, conforming to the complex geometry of the compact half placed atop it.

Thus, the printed image wraps around the part. Undissolved film is rinsed off with a plain hot water bath and the compact covers are air dried. Then, along with the covers decorated earlier, they are top coated with a clear ultraviolet liquid for gloss and UV cured for the required durability and dimensional characteristics.

Finally, the decorated covers are returned to West for assembly with the bases and reshipment to OrthoMcNeil.

The company is making the Personal Pak available in lapis, garnet, jade, amethyst floral, onyx and sapphire, believing the selection will allow a "woman to choose a look she is comfortable taking anywhere, without the worry of being noticed."

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