Kentucky Company Creates Pill Container Designed to Curb Drug Abuse

A Louisville, Ky., company has created a secure pill dispenser with the aim of combating prescription drug abuse.

The Pill Guard is designed to ensure patients get the prescribed dose of medicine at the right time, and it prevents a user from taking too many pills at one time.

Pill Guard president Roger Hayes says the device is a step up from the child-resistant caps that came out in the 1970s. He says this device makes the drugs “adult-resistant.”

The company launched the product as a pilot effort in late October, and it has become part of a small but growing market of smarter pill dispensers. The idea came from a local orthopedic surgeon who lost a patient to a drug overdose.

The device can hold 60 pills.