6.3.2. Product packaging and labeling

Collected reports about complaints on packaging and labeling reached FK already before, but these were never consolidated and not considered as highly relevant.

The quite poor rating for Fresenius Kabi packaging and labeling showed, that the design indeed is important for customers and this gave the impulse to kick-off a project for packaging and labeling improvement.

First drafts which allow a better differentiation of products and especially between different strengths have been created. With the improvement of the packaging design, medication errors due to poor readability or difficult differentiation between drugs shall be eliminated.

These designs will now be tested in a market research study in the Top 5 EU countries, which are Germany, United Kingdom, France, Italy and Spain. Decision makers like purchaser, pharmacists, prescribers and also users like nurses will be asked to compare the new designed packages and labels with products from competitors. With the help of their feedback, an improved design will be realized and launched step by step in different countries. The market research will run until October 2013 and a final design will be available end of 2013. A first roll-out of FK products with the new design is planned not before the second half of 2014, as with the new packaging, new registration and regulatory processes are mandatory and are different from country to country.

As an immediate improvement, the promotional material in the mature generic markets received a design “face-lift”. The colorful logos from the branded generics were implemented in the neutral design of sales folders and all other materials like presentations and posters.