Device for delivering medicament

Abstract

The present invention relates to a device for the delivery of predetermined doses of liquid medicament to a patient, which medicament is intended to be inhaled by the patient or intended to be injected into the body of the patient. The device is adapted to be in a medicament delivery state and in a medicament non-delivery state. When the device is in a medicament delivery state, said device is adapted to drive a piston into a cartridge containing the liquid medicament to be delivered, with a force that is above or equal to a predetermined minimum force value and below a predetermined maximum force value. The minimum force value is the lowest force value needed to deliver the predetermined dose and the maximum force value is the first force value at which it exists a risk of damaging the cartridge or the components of the device.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD [0001] The present invention relates to a device for the delivery of predetermined doses of liquid medicament to a patient, which medicament is intended to be inhaled by the patient or intended to be injected into the body of the patient. The device is adapted to be in a medicament delivery state and in a medicament non-delivery state. When the device is in a medicament delivery state, said device is adapted to drive a piston into a cartridge containing the liquid medicament to be delivered, with a predetermined force value. Said force is preferably above or equal to a predetermined minimum force value and below a predetermined maximum force value. BACKGROUND ART [0002] The development of devices for delivering liquid medicament to a patient, have during the recent years become more and more directed towards the ability for the patient themselves to administer the medicament with a predetermined dose in an easy, safe and reliable way and also to facilitate the admini...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0014] The object of the present invention is therefore to provide an automatic liquid medicament delivery device, which during medicament delivery applies a force with a predetermined force value to a piston, which ensures that a predetermined volume of medicament is expelled from a cartridge.

[0015] The present invention also substantially lowers the risk of damaging the cartridge and / or the device during medicament delivery in comparison with prior art automatic liquid medicament delivery devices.

[0016] The inventive delivery device also substantially improves the dose and the dose-to-dose accuracy in comparison with prior art devices.

[0017] With the present invention it also possible to set the predetermined dose that is to be delivered in an easy and reliable way.

[0018] Another object of the present invention is to provide an automatic liquid medicament delivery device, which substantially reduces the problems with creep in and plastic deformation of the plastic materials of the delivery device.

Problems solved by technology

However, the conventional cartridge is often made of an easily breakable material, such as glass, and having an initial high force acting on the piston will result in that there is a substantial risk of damaging the cartridge, which is most undesirable.

One can generally say that when a plunger rod is allowed to freely act on the piston, there is a substantial risk of damaging the cartridge when the piston is applied with a force that is above or equal to approximately 50-60 N.

However, a smaller spring constant would require a larger spring and hence a larger device.

A larger device is generally not handled as easily as a device with a smaller size.

Another problem is, that there is a minimum force value required to initially act on the piston in order for the piston to start the movement from its original position in the distal end of the cartridge, which minimum force in the art often is referred to as the “break loose force”.

This force would not be obtained if the device was provided with a spring having a too small spring constant.

This is undesirable, especially when the medicament is to be inhaled by the patient.

This phenomena also results in that the rate with which the medicament is delivered may differ from one dose to another, since a higher dose requires an initially higher force to act on the piston than a lower dose, i.e. the so called “dose-to-dose accuracy” is poor with prior art automatic delivery devices.

Moreover, the conventional cartridge does not always have a smooth interior surface but may exhibit irregularities or unevenness as a result from the manufacturing procedure or as a result from the lubrication procedure, since the interior of the conventional cartridge most often is lubricated before use, for instance by the use of silicon oil.

Such an irregularity or unevenness may increase the travel resistance acting on the piston which may cause the piston to slow down or even get stuck before it has reached its predetermined position inside the cartridge, especially if the irregularity is to be found towards the end of the distance that the piston is required to travel, when the force acting on it has declined to a low value.

Another problem is that the conventional delivery devices are generally made of plastic material due to manufacturing and economical reasons.

Having a pre-tensed spring provided in the interior of such a device, results in that the tension caused by the pre-tensed spring, is held back by means of plastic components, which can lead to creep and hence plastic deformation of the plastic materials.

This may reduce the life of the device and affect its accuracy and may also affect the automatic delivery function of said device.

Also, having a high force acting on the piston during medicament delivery can cause damage of the plastic components of the device, which is thus another reason why it is not suitable to have a too high force applied to the piston, besides the risk of damaging the cartridge.

Moreover, the device is not provided with means in order to set a predetermined dose of medicament to be delivered.

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