Bayer adds QR code to pack to help blind patients

Bayer has launched updated packaging for one of its over-the-counter (OTC) products in the UK with a QR code designed to assist people who are blind or partially sighted.

The codes have been applied to packs of its Canescool Soothing Gel Cream brand, used to calm irritation of intimate areas, and according to Bayer Consumer Health UK this is the first application of an accessible QR (AQR) code on a women’s health product.

It has been a requirement to add braille to medicine packs for many years, but that is generally limited to identifying the product and the use of an AQR adds another digital layer of information.

Scanning the code with a smartphone will result in the product information being spoken aloud, and users will also be directed to a landing page on the Canescool website with additional resources including a quiz that aims to dispel myths about intimate irritation.

There are an estimated 200,000 women who are registered as blind or partially sighted in the UK, according to the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB).

To read the code, users start an app like Envision – designed to help blind people by articulating everyday visual information into speech; for example, describing their surroundings – and point the camera at the pack.

Other software such as Microsoft SeeingAI and an app developed by Zappar, which developed the AQR used on Bayer’s packs, can also be used.

According to the RNIB’s accessibility innovation lead, Marc Powell, improving access to self-care and health information for blind and partially sighted people is 'hugely important'.

“Independence and choice is something we should all have, especially when it comes to looking after ourselves,” he said, calling for other pharma companies to follow Bayer’s lead. “More than two million people in the UK are living with sight loss and by 2050 it will double to over four million people.”

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) allows the use of QR codes on medicines packaging, as long as they are subordinate to the statutory information that must be on a pack, are useful to the patient, and non-promotional.

“This digitally inclusive transformation is a major step change for us, as well as the whole healthcare category,” commented Bayer Consumer Health’s Mike Knowland, general manager and cluster lead for Northern Europe.

“It is the start of our ambition to add accessible QR codes onto more of our product packaging across the consumer health portfolio, so that we continue to meet our company vision of ‘health for all’ and empower more people to find it easier to self-care – a vital societal sustainability pillar of ours,” he added.

The new pack design with AQR code will be available on Amazon from this month, with wider distribution across other retailers and pharmacies following after.