Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.

Pharmaceuticals
October 1, 2013

Otsuka Pharmaceutical Receives the 2013 Good Design Award for the Antiplatelet Drug "Pletaal® OD Tablets"

Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd (Corporate Headquarters: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, Japan; President and CEO: Taro Iwamoto) has received the 2013 Good Design Award for the antiplatelet drug "Pletaal® OD Tablets 50 mg/100 mg" (nonproprietary name: cilostazol), which are orally dissolving (OD) tablets, for the use of IDTAB technology that makes it possible for the first time in the world to print directly onto OD tablets. Pletaal Tablets were also included in the Good Design Best 100 list.
Being able to print the product name directly onto conventional OD tablets, which are soft and dissolve easily, is complicated and has up until now been impossible. Otsuka received the Good Design Award 2013 for making it possible to print directly onto OD tablets using this IDTAB technology.
The advantage of being able to print the product name directly on the tablet is that it allows both medical professionals and patients themselves to easily identify what drug each individual tablet contains by product name, preventing prescribing and dosing errors. Because antiplatelet drugs in particular are high-risk drugs that inhibit clotting, their use needs to be discontinued before surgery, and having the product name printed on the tablets themselves makes it much easier for medical professionals and patients to identify the drug.