Wearable Injector Delivers Drugs Subcutaneously

A novel adhesive subcutaneous injector delivers large volume drugs to support life cycle management of biological therapies.

The BD (Franklin Lakes, NJ, USA) BD Libertas Wearable Injector is a drug delivery system, currently in final phases of development, designed to deliver drugs with viscosities up to 50 cP in 2-5 mL and 5-10 mL configurations, facilitating the migration from intravenous (IV) to subcutaneous routes of administration. The device delivers therapeutic drugs using a customizable flow rate adjusted to drug viscosity and therapy needs, providing slow drug infusion subcutaneously over the desired period of time, ranging from a few seconds to several minutes. Optional smart functionality enables connectivity to the healthcare network.

A recent clinical trial to evaluate the performance of the 5 mL BD Libertas device in humans, which monitored effects such as tissue responses, skin reactivity, and patient acceptance, confirmed that the device delivered within an acceptable time period 5 mL of 8 cP subcutaneous injections to the abdomen and thigh, regardless of subject age, gender, or body mass index (BMI), and both with or without patient movement. No severe wheal, erythema, or bleeding was observed, and no unacceptable pain was noted at 24 hours post-injection.

“These results show that BD Libertas Wearable Injector effectively delivers dose volumes up to 5 mL subcutaneously, and may be leveraged by our pharmaceutical partners as a reliable platform for large volume delivery,” said Eric Borin, worldwide president of BD Pharmaceutical Systems. “BD is committed to working with our customers and the broader pharmaceutical market to meet their needs by enabling an expanded drug delivery design space.”

Subcutaneous injections are highly effective in administering medications such as insulin, morphine, diacetylmorphine, and goserelin. As subcutaneous tissue has few blood vessels, the drugs are injected as a bolus, undergoing subsequent slow, sustained rates of absorption. It is a slower (but less painful) route than intramuscular injections, especially for viscous drugs, but still faster than intradermal injections.

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