The seemingly simple task of opening a pill bottle with a child-resistant cap can be a nightmare for many. A startup company called SnapSlide decided to do something about it.
The Scranton, Pa.-based firm developed a new type of no-torque, child-resistant (CR) cap for use (initially) on pharmaceutical bottles. Called SnapSlide Rx, the design features a patented, sliding, two-step opening procedure that allows for single-handed opening and closing while maintaining the necessary safety benefits, including mandated child resistance.
The polypropylene closure – which just won a 2024 IoPP AmeriStar Award – uses significantly less plastic but, more importantly, enables safe, easy handling for the millions of individuals who have physical disabilities and limitations.
The patented concept also can be applied to other types of packaging – from kitty litter and cannabis to household industrial chemicals – but the SnapSlide team is focusing on amber pharma vial closures first. They plan to launch commercially in the US in early 2025.
SnapSlide Inventor/CEO Rocky Batzel said in a recent telephone interview that he was attending medical school when his mother told him that his grandmother was struggling to open her pill bottles. There had to be a better way, he figured. He decided to start RB Innovation to pursue his passion to create useful new products. In 2016 he began to lay the groundwork for what would eventually become SnapSlide Rx.
Recognizing a broader, underserved market
Batzel said one particular incident drove home to him the true need for such a product. He had been focused on helping individuals such as his grandmother open her pill bottle. But one day he went into a liquor store and saw a woman who was providing drink samples to customers. She was an amputee, with just one arm. He watched her struggle with opening the bottles.
It then struck him that this was a much bigger issue than he had been imagining. Research revealed that more than 60 million Americans encounter some temporary or permanent condition that could make it difficult to open the typical push-and-turn CR caps. These include amputees, stroke/paralysis patients, those with congenital birth defects, or who suffer limited dexterity from diseases such as arthritis, multiple sclerosis, or Parkinson’s.
This only stoked his desire to find a solution. In 2017 he met another northeastern Pennsylvania native, Chason Sordoni, through a mutual friend. Sordoni had extensive video production experience and produced the company’s first videos. The intensity and passion of these user testimonials motivated the pair to co-found SnapSlide to pursue the goal of advancing accessible and sustainable packaging through SnapSlide’s novel single-handed design.
Batzel wanted his product’s slide-to-open/close functionality to require less force and dexterity than traditional CR caps. He also wanted his cap to stay firmly affixed to the vials, providing an additional dimension of safety and convenience while allowing for easy, metered dosing.
Featuring an audible snap
“The closure system also provides definitive security feedback,” the company notes, “by producing a 57-decibel ‘snap’ upon closing – an auditory cue helping consumers recognize still-open medicine bottles.”
The project was not without its share of hurdles. In its early days, Batzel said, “I lost my first mold in a fire, and my adviser passed away shortly thereafter.” So he started over. They 3D-printed models first, using ABS resin. But ABS is typically harder than polypropylene (PP), and some predicted they wouldn’t be able to replicate the “snap” sound using the softer PP resin.
“Pharma also needs virgin material” – not recycled, he noted. SnapSlide has designed its closure to be material-agnostic, Sordoni said by phone, paving the way for future iterations to consist of various next-generation plastic resins The company has secured eight utility and design patents, and has three more pending. The firm now is working with Miniature Custom Manufacturing, a mid-size, high-volume contract manufacturer in Vicksburg, Mich.
Batzel said that he and Sordoni spoke with a lot of injection molders along their journey – many of whom said what they wanted to do couldn’t be done. “We considered PP, HDPE and PET,” he said, but I was sure we could get that ‘snap’.” And eventually he did.
They also had to fine-tune such properties as the coefficient of friction and the degree of compression for sliding and sealing. Their initial design was a cube form factor, but “it was too different for the industry,” he said, “and we got a lot of pushback.”
The conservative pharma industry uses PP resin almost exclusively for its closures – especially for the familiar UV-resistant, amber-colored containers – and so it was preferable to stick with a tried-and-true material. An added benefit is that polypropylene is easily injection molded and is highly recyclable.
The sustainability side benefit
Through the course of the product’s development, Batzel said they learned of an important side benefit of their design – increased sustainability. He said they worked to develop their closure to fit on traditionally shaped cylindrical vials. They discovered that they could “just snap it on,” eliminating the need for threads, as with screw-on caps. As a result, SnapSlide Rx closures use 27 percent less plastic than current caps. That savings rises to closer to 50% for over-the-counter applications, Batzel said.
The product has been well received so far, he claims. “In focus groups, nearly 90 percent of consumers preferred SnapSlide to conventional amber vial closures,” the company reports. “Two-thirds reported they would be more loyal to brands adopting SnapSlide – and likely to switch to a competing brand if theirs did not incorporate the solution.”
Sordoni, meanwhile, believes that SnapSlide represents a major advancement in child-resistant (CR) packaging, declaring it “a new element on the periodic table of closures.”
Packaging itself isn’t a consumer product, but it’s consumer-facing, notes Batzel. “We’re a B2B product serving a B2C market.”
While focused on its pending North American roll-out, SnapSlide has bigger, broader plans. “We’re already getting calls, primarily from Europe and also Australia,” Batzel said. “We’re looking for partners” in these various regions.
For his part, Batzel says, “The SnapSlide prescription vial caps have the potential to be better for all and life-changing for many,” adding that “accessible packaging is my mission.”