Needle-free injection technology will eliminated the dangers to health care workers caused by needle stick injuries. It is estimated that more than one million sharp injuries occur every year world wide, by objects such as needles, blades, lancets, knives and any other sharp items. As a result of widely-publicised risks of needle-stick injury associated with conventional injections, legislation has recently been passed in the United States which requires employers to provide safety features in sharp medical devices.
Norwood and its research partner Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have developed a Needle-free injector system. The Needle-free injection device is designed for both human and veterinary applications. The drug is delivered through the skin using a small handheld device. The system uses a novel, patented and extremely fast and powerful contractile fibre-activated pump that fires the drug at the skin with sufficient velocity to penetrate without the use of needles.
The Norwood Needle-free injector system addresses all the parameters that have been identified as crucial for an ideal needle-free system.
Key features of Norwood's Needle-free injector system are:
It is silent It is safe It has a low cost per procedure
The basis of the technology is the use of very fast contracting shape memory alloy fibres. The shape memory alloy fibres (typically an alloy of nickel and titanium) are activated using a brief electrical pulse whose initiation, duration and general shape are controlled by an embedded computer. These fibres can be designed to contract and produce significant forces. Additionally the Needle-free injector system has computer control to vary dosage and delivery force dependent on individual skin type.
Norwood has licensed a key patent for the technology from McGill University and has filed a large number of USA patents on the core technology to strengthen its intellectual property position.
The Norwood Needle-free injector system overcomes key concerns with some of the existing needle-free injection devices.
Existing needle-free injection devices typically use either compressed gas or, via a fast chemical reaction, produce a gas (similar to an automotive air bag) to force a fixed quantity of drug out through a small orifice at a velocity that is high enough to penetrate skin.
These technologies have certain disadvantages including:
High cost per procedure Firing of device can be very noisy and the procedure can be frightening for the patient Drug dose cannot be varied (eg according to body weight, age, sex etc) Delivery rate and force required is not programmable to compensate for different skin thickness or drug delivery rate required The Norwood Needle-free injector device has been designed to overcome the limitations of existing systems.
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