I take pills. I take a lot of pills everyday. Instead of opening 12 different bottles throughout the am and pm to get what I need, I propose a company that wholesales all your favorite brands and personal choices individually packaged for each day and offered in 1,3, 6, and 12 month supplies.
Each little cup (think jello pudding type cup) would be marked with the date and am or pm time. Peel off the top and find your Vit C, your multi-vitamin based on age/gender, your immune system booster, your calcium pill, and all those other fun little pills your homeopath recommended....
Perscription medication would not be included.
(if there is a better category for this, please let me know. I looked for "Product: vitamins" first but it doesn't exist)-- runforrestrun, Feb 13 2002 Google Search List of Repackaging Services http://www.google.c...repackaging+serviceCall 'em. [quarterbaker, Feb 13 2002, last modified Oct 04 2004] (?) Is this the future for prescription drugs, too? http://www.techrevi...s/cameron021102.aspMIT Tech Review article on personalized prescription drugs [quarterbaker, Feb 15 2002, last modified Oct 04 2004] Ren-Yi http://www.ren-yi.comthe sort of do this i think - they do pre-packed sets for certain 'life' conditions such as stress or busy. I think they consult too... [dazwah, Feb 20 2002, last modified Oct 04 2004] Custom Vitamins http://www.mitamins.comPrepackaged? This is practically medievil compared to what can be done in these heady days of mass customization... [wongmeister, May 30 2006] Vuru - a place to get the vitamins you want packaged http://www.vuru.comthis is exactly what the poster decribes [flkorndog, Sep 13 2006] fishbone - gross overpackaging - at least 3x cost - easily D.I.Y. with daily, weekly, and monthly pill organizers available at most pharmacies-- quarterbaker, Feb 13 2002 I think it's a fine idea. The only problem I see is having a prescription change and being stuck with unopened cups.-- phoenix, Feb 13 2002 qb, all your points are valid. however, for ease and convenience (ok, a luxury item) I would buy it. I hate it that some pills come in bottles of 100, some in 60s, some in 150s, etc. it seems I'm always dropping by the store for one bottle of something.
The cups could be smaller than a jello pudding cup, just to make sure overpackaging is minimized. unless, of course, someone had that many pills to take.
phoenix, no perscription drugs included. All vitamin/herbals only. (to prevent just the problem you noted)-- runforrestrun, Feb 13 2002 PS -- you're right. What I was trying to say (and did poorly) is that the company will buy in bulk and pass the savings onto the customer (well, maybe not since the customer has to pay for the gross overpackaging but breaking even or paying more is worth it for the convenience). I think that they could buy 10,000 bottles of Centrum for far less per bottle than I pay when I buy just one bottle.-- runforrestrun, Feb 13 2002 have to agree with qb, very expensive - lew, sorry runf-- po, Feb 13 2002 Let me clarify: I think your intentions are good. But I stand by my original annotation. It is true that a packaging company could get bulk discounts. But it is also true that they would have a very strong incentive to package generics or sub-par vitamins in place of your requested name brands, while charging you for the higher ticket version. Then there's the increased complexity to a recall, should a product tampering or product defect issue arise. FYI: there are companies out there who specialize in repackaging. They will package just about any bulk item, in any format of package you want, with any label you want. Want to have "Halfbakery Brand Sugar" on the shelves of supermarkets? Contact one of these companies and they'll do it for you. But their targetted customers aren't consumers.-- quarterbaker, Feb 13 2002 I think this is very doable, but we need to address the issues of shelf life and packaging.
I believe the process could be automated very easily, but it would need to be batched to be efficient. You'd want to group manufacturing runs by similarity as there would certainly be multiple customers with identical (or similar) subscriptions. You'd want to buy JIT so stored supplies don't go bad. I'd also recommend blister packs instead of cups to save on shipping costs.
Lastly, there should be standard, pre-packaged combinations that could be sold for less than the personalized ones.-- phoenix, Feb 13 2002 Hold those JPGs...Those are not drugs, those are vitamins. It suggests treating Lyme disease with 'Primrose Oil, Digestive Enzymes, Garlic, Goldenseal, and Kelp'.-- StarChaser, Feb 15 2002 Sorry, reflex.-- StarChaser, Feb 15 2002 Painful as it may be with first swallow, you have to give PS his due on this one...Wish I didn't have to say that so frequently!-- jurist, Feb 15 2002 If it's a great idea, but it's baked, but the author didn't know about it & thought of it themselves (honor system here), should it get a croissant or a fishbone?-- miles, Feb 15 2002 Peter's link is very close, but not exactly how I stated it. The company linked to will sell you vitamins...but only their vitamins. You can NOT get nationally known brands of multivitamins like One-A-Day and Centrum added to your package. In my idea, I was seeking a clearinghouse type structure for Nationally recognized vitamin brands.
So, the concept of personalized prepackaging of vitamins is baked, but having the option of name brands which are nationally recognized (and trusted by millions) is not. Because of this, I chose to let the idea stand.-- runforrestrun, Feb 15 2002 Baked at several levels: services that prepackage (if you run an adult living facility an have oversight of your resident's medication you use this or pay a nurse to maintain a secure drug safe) and services that custom blend doses.
I'd like to have all my supplements blended into a nutrient bar, tasty drink, or custard. So do a lot of folks, judging by the demand for blended and food-flavored pharmaceutical syrups, jells and solids. The hottest item locally is a vitamin blend that contains essentially what one needs from these nifty little coenzymes in a red wine flavored base. The geros love it, some with a sly look on their faces.
I doubt that the blend is any different from a custom made retail product (AT ALL -- count to ten, don't rant--) and there is only that little paranoia thing to consider when offering a disguised product; consequently, there will be a solid advantage by innovative blends such as the aforementioned wine.-- reensure, Feb 20 2002 Id prefer it taken further - custom vitamins tailor-suited to my exact individual vitaminic needs.-- epicproblem, May 30 2006 I just exceeded my RDA for redundancy.-- jutta, Sep 13 2006 random, halfbakery