Breaking the needle habit by using needle free delivery
Helping "Belenophobics" (people who fear needles): 16 billion needle injections are used every year costing US$5-6 billion. 1-2 persons in 10 is apprehensive of needles, and studies show a preference for alternatives to needle and syringe injections. Many people experience no pain while others feel mild pressure or a pinch-like sensation. In all situations however, the strong fear of being poked by a needle is eliminated by the use of needle free.
Avoiding needle stick injury: With needle free, healthcare workers are spared the occupational risk of being infected by blood borne pathogens through needle stick injuries. 74% of nurses say they would not consider working for an employer that does not provide safety syringes. Nearly two-thirds (64%) report being accidentally stuck by a needle while working, and an incredible 74% report being stuck by a contaminated needle!1
Reducing needle reuse: The World Health Organization estimates that 50% of needle-syringe injections are unsafe2, and that over 23 million people contract hepatitis, HIV, and other diseases each year because of this practice3. There are examples in every country of needle re-use, including in well funded healthcare environments. Auto-disabled syringes are reducing this risk. Once used, the PharmaJet syringe is also auto-disabled and cannot be re-used.
Reduced sharps disposal: Disposal of sharp medical waste requires costly sharps disposal services. PharmaJet's needle-free syringe can be disposed in the same way a used Band-aid is disposed - thus making it simple and inexpensive.
0.5 ml fixed dose delivery for IM and SC
Ask your health care provider if PharmaJet's device is the right delivery approach for you. It delivers a fixed 0.5 ml liquid volume to the IM and SC depth. This is the standard volume for most childhood vaccines, travelers' vaccines, young adult vaccines etc., and some therapeutics:
Vaccines
Currently, there are 24 vaccine preventable diseases in the world, with children receiving slightly more than half, and adults the balance of all vaccinations. In some cases, booster shots for various vaccines are needed throughout a person's life-time. In other cases, vaccines are offered for special purposes:
- Childhood vaccines
- Travelers' vaccines
- Seasonal vaccines
- Adult vaccines
Therapeutics
Many therapeutics are injected IM or SC in 0.5 ml volumes. Ask your doctor. A few are approved in 0.5 ml volumes and are often administered at home:
- Migraines
- Infertility and other treatment hormones
0.1 ml fixed dose delivery for Intra-dermal (ID) delivery
PharmaJet's ID device is being prepared for FDA marketing clearance and CE marking. Applications for such a device when cleared for use in clinical studies and marketing are numerous.
Pandemic vaccines: Several clinical studies of licensed seasonal vaccines published in peer-reviewed journals have suggested that 1/5th of the standard dose of vaccines (meaning 0.1 ml delivered ID) results in seroconversion equal to a full-dose 0.5 ml standard IM injection.5 If extended to a pandemic, this strategy would permit five times more people to be vaccinated with the same resources.
ID delivery using needle and syringe requires specialized training of vaccination staff and is a significant barrier to wide adoption of the technique. However, ID delivery with PharmaJet's new generation of needle-free disposable syringe jet injectors (DSJI) will be easy and require minimal training.
Needle-free ID devices could help alleviate vaccine shortages. By reducing the volume of vaccine manufactured and the number of prefilled vials needed to be stored in inventory before becoming outdated, it could be possible to reduce the cost of stockpiling and cold storage.
Other intradermal vaccines: According to published clinical trials5, rabies, inactivated polio, yellow fever, hepatitis A and other vaccines have been shown to be effective in an intra-dermal reduced dose delivery. Unlike other ID delivery technologies such as patches, micro-needles or solid dose formulations that require extensive reformulation and regulatory clearances, ID vaccine delivery with the PharmaJet system permits use of standard off-the-shelf licensed vaccines in single or multi-dose formats, with no reformulation required (when PharmaJet is granted marketing clearance).
Other applications: Needleless ID delivery could be used for tuberculin and allergy testing, and for delivery to other places in the body such as the scalp where 0.05 to 0.1 ml of medicine have to be carefully injected into the skin.
1. American Nurses Association; "2008 Study of Nurses' Views on Workplace Safety and Needlestick Injuries"; Summer 2008.
2. Bill and Melinda Gates Children's Vaccine Program; "Unsafe Injections, Fatal Infections"; Occasional Paper #2; page 3; May 2000.
3. World Health Organization; Dept. of Essential Health Technologies; "Safety of Injections - Global Facts & Figures."
4. World Health Organization; "(GIVS) Global Immunization Vision and Strategy 2006-2015"; October 2005; page 44.
5. CLINICAL AND VACCINE IMMUNOLOGY; "Preclinical Evaluation of Microneedle Technology for Intradermal Delivery of Influenza Vaccines"; April 2007; p. 375-381.
