Briefly, an injection
delivery system is described for subcutaneous or
intramuscular injection of a
drug, in particular a large volume of a biologic
drug, high and low
viscosity biologies, or a large volume of a high
viscosity and low
viscosity chemical
drug. The injections may be self-administered or performed by a caregiver. The
system uses a pump to move a drug from a
vial, thorough an
infusion set, and into the patient. A
vial of a biological or chemical drug is set into a
vial adapter that is associated with the pump, which can be manual or powered. A
fluidics subassembly connects the
vial adapter, pump, and the
infusion set so that a drug pathway is enabled from the vial to the patient. The
fluidics subassembly has one or more check valves to assure that the drug pathway is only enabled for a one-way drug flow out of the vial and to the patient. The
infusion set has flexible tubing that connects the
fluidics subassembly to cannula
assembly inside an infuser housing. The cannula
assembly has an air evacuation
assembly near the tip of the needle. This air evacuation assembly is constructed to safely exhaust air from the cannula assembly at three times: (1) at initial setup to exhaust air while the drug is filling the cannula assembly, which enables the self-priming; (2) during injection to exhaust drug-entrapped air, which increases injection safety; and (3) at the end of
drug delivery to exhaust air after the full
dose of drug has been delivered to the cannula assembly, including drug that was in the tubing, which reduces wasted drug and minimizes the amount of drug overfill required in the vial.