Consortium sets up in USA to reduce medication errors

The president of Balboni Communications Group has announced the formation of the Consortium for the Advancement of Patient Safety. The mission of this is to address the growing issue of medication errors and need for anti-counterfeiting measures, such as printing on secondary closures, to help protect patients. Frederick Balboni is the executive director for the Consortium and membership consists of representatives from major pharmaceutical companies.

"The CAPS Consortium was established to ensure pharmaceutical manufacturers have access to all available technologies and methods to mitigate the risks of medication errors," said Mr Balboni. "Limiting the type of information that can be printed or otherwise displayed on drug packaging could compromise patient safety and thwart efforts to combat drug counterfeiting," he added.

The US Pharmacopoeia has revised the USP General Chapter on injections, labeling on ferrules and cap overseals to limit printing and other types of messaging on drug packages. When this implemented in May of 2010, printing would be limited to cautionary statements on the top surface of the ferrule or cap overseal of an injectable drug.