Pharma blister pack hologram tech gets US, EU patents

US hologram company Holographyx has been awarded US and EU patients on Holo-Blister, a new anti-counterfeiting system for pharmaceutical blister packs.

The company – which says it developed the world's first holographic "scratch-off" lottery ticket more than 20 years ago – developed the new technology with the help of holography specialist Hazen Paper Co and Uhlmann Packaging, which produces packaging equipment for process industries.

The Holo-Blister technology enables companies to apply holograms to the rear of blister packs using conventional heat-seal blister packaging equipment.

It has been designed so that they will only be visible behind each pill/capsule cavity on the back of each blister pack, thereby allowing the printing of dosage and marketing information on the area surrounding the pill/capsule recess.

Blister packs are widely used for pharma products such as pills or capsules because they provide excellent product protection, tamper evidence, and can help compliance with therapy as they show exactly the number of pills that have been taken and those that remain.

The platform "provides consumers with the ability to visually validate the authenticity of their purchases instantly with the use of custom holograms that, prior to the development of Holo-Blister, would be extremely difficult to manufacture and apply," said the company.

The new system will compete with other blister packaging anti-counterfeit technologies, including a system introduced in 2015 by Romaco Noack that combines holograms on the front of the blister sheet with overt and/or covert security features based on a banknote authentication system, and another platform from Inabata/Toyo.