WOONSOCKET – CVS Health now carries Timer Caps for prescriptions, developed by TimerCap LLC to better manage medication, which some addiction-prevention programs are using to mitigate opioid abuse.
“We didn’t actually come up with the idea that Timer Caps were good for [combating addiction to] opioids,” TimerCap CEO Larry Twersky said.
The Timer Caps, which record the last time a cap was opened, were intended to help people with multiple medications navigate their medicine schedules, keep track of what pills they took and when. Twersky said TimerCap had intended a long-overdue upgrade on prescription-bottle safety, last updated in the 1970s with childproof caps.
“But that’s not really the problem with opioids,” he said.
Recently, he said, the company has been hearing from addiction-prevention programs interested in using Timer Caps as a means to fight addiction.
“We saw it late last year,” he said.
Twersky said Timer Caps aid addiction prevention in two ways.
First, Timer Caps allow a person taking opioid drugs to better manage their prescription. For those patients, he said, the goal is pain management, not an entire elimination of pain. Usually, people prescribed opioids are best advised to keep their pain, on a scale of 1-10, between 1-4.
“You’re not usually looking for zero pain. You’re looking for a pain level where you can still focus,” Twersky said.
So, he said, a patient can use the Timer Cap to better manage their opioid use and avoid taking too much, a serious hazard once you’ve already consumed pain medication. But looking at the Timer Cap can help you keep track of when you’re supposed to take the next dose, and not to overdo it, Twersky said.
The second prevention method, he said, is in alerting people to when others have opened their prescription bottles. Fifty-two percent of opioid and heroin addicts start out stealing someone else’s medicine, he said.
The caps sell at pharmacies as pill bottle accessories, sold separately from prescriptions, at $3 per three-pack package. He said he’s working on getting the Food and Drug Administration to approve the caps to be added to opioid-prescription bottles automatically, covered under medical insurance.
“Stronger packaging should be included,” Twersky said.
Rob Borkowski is a PBN contributing writer.
