Needle-free drug delivery using shock wave techniques

Abstract

A recent advancement in the area of needle-free injection systems has been the development of devices capable of epidermal delivery of powder medications. These devices use high-pressure compressed gas to accelerate drug particles 2 to 50 gpm in size to velocities of 200 to 1000 m/s. At these speeds the particles have sufficient momentum to penetrate the skin barrier and reach the viable epidermal layers. The devices offer much better control over the depth of penetration than traditional hypodermic needles, a factor particularly important in vaccine delivery. However they still have not found wide spread use, because of their cost. We studied the parameters determining the performance of these devices and used that knowledge to create a simple and reusable device capable of delivering 3 to 10 mg of powder formulation to the viable epidermis. Furthermore we showed that hydrogen-oxygen combustion could be used to create the shock wave required to accelerate the drug particles. This proves that portable reusable devices powered by hydrogen can be constructed and used for vaccine and medication delivery.