More long term therapies are likely to be required in the future that can be self-administered safely. Helge Adleff, managing director, Acuros, describes a device offering constant delivery of small volume parenteral drugs for the outpatient market.
After the medicines themselves, the method of drug delivery is the next most critical parameter for the success of a medical therapy. For some patients, continuous drug administration can have many advantages over repeated bolus (pills or injections) dosage forms, including the prevention of over- or under- dosing.
For example, excess drug plasma levels, which may occur immediately after injections, can promote undesirable side effects. A short time later the drug plasma level can drop below its optimum, followed by low therapeutic efficacy. Furthermore, many new biotech drugs can be administered only by bypassing the digestive tract and therefore require continuous parenteral delivery.
To address this need, stationary infusion devices are widely used in hospital environments where patients are under intensive care. But if an ambulatory patient is in need of sustained drug delivery or a patient needs to take their medication at home, what options are open to them?
For these patients there are currently few options available. Among the best known are portable, battery driven insulin pumps. These costly devices are usable by a small group of Type I diabetic patients only. They offer the advantages of sustained insulin delivery with unlimited mobility, thus improving a patient’s quality of life. However, there is a lack of cost-effective, safe and easy-to-use devices for continuous delivery of small volume parenteral drugs for the outpatient market.
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