Segmented Drug Delivery System with Inert Support
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current drug delivery systems face challenges in maintaining consistent drug levels, as they often result in peak and valley concentrations due to variable release rates, and are complex and expensive to manufacture, especially when administering multiple drugs simultaneously at specified ratios, which can lead to inefficiencies and undesirable side effects.
Innovation Solution
A drug delivery system comprising an elongated inert support with multiple compartments, each containing a reservoir with a pharmaceutically active ingredient, where the inert support prevents migration and interaction between reservoirs, allowing for independent control of each drug's release rate and ratio, thereby ensuring a constant delivery of multiple drugs at specified rates without interference.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If a single delivery device is used to administer multiple drugs simultaneously, then patient compliance and treatment efficiency are improved, but controlling the specified delivery rate ratio between drugs becomes difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The delivery device is divided into separate compartments, each dedicated to a specific drug reservoir. This segmentation allows each drug to be delivered independently through its own controlled pathway, enabling precise control of delivery rate ratios while maintaining a single integrated device for improved patient compliance.
2Device complexity
If drugs are blended in a single reservoir in proportion to desired delivery rates, then device complexity is reduced, but the actual delivery rate ratio deviates from the specified ratio due to different diffusion rates
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of blending drugs in a single reservoir, the invention segments the reservoir into separate compartments for each drug. Each compartment is surrounded by its own rate-controlling membrane, allowing independent control of delivery rates. This ensures the specified delivery rate ratio is maintained while keeping the overall device structure relatively simple.
3Manufacturing precision
If separate delivery devices are used for each drug to maintain specified delivery rates, then delivery rate ratio control is improved, but device complexity and patient discomfort increase
Solution Approach 1:
The invention merges multiple separate delivery devices into a single integrated device with multiple compartments. Each compartment maintains its own drug reservoir and rate-controlling membrane for precise delivery rate control, while the overall structure is unified into one device that is easier to administer and less uncomfortable for patients.
4Duration of action of moving object
If a rate-controlling membrane is used to control drug release, then sustained release is achieved, but manufacturing complexity and cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The rate-controlling membrane is segmented into separate sections for each drug compartment. This allows each membrane section to be optimized independently for its specific drug while using a standardized overall manufacturing process. The segmented approach maintains sustained release capabilities while simplifying manufacturing compared to a single complex membrane system.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This system provides a reliable, cost-effective method for delivering multiple drugs at controlled rates, reducing manufacturing complexity and minimizing side effects by maintaining consistent drug levels and allowing for flexible adjustment of release profiles, enhancing patient comfort and treatment efficacy.
Implementation Method 1
the material of the support has a lower permeability to the active ingredient than the material of the reservoirs, it is effectively prevented that the active ingredient(s) will, in any substantial degree, diffuse or in any other way migrate from the respective reservoir into the support material
Implementation Method 2
each active ingredient is released at a controlled rate... the drugs should be released from a delivery device at a rate that does not change with time, so called zero-order release
Data Source
AI summary
A drug delivery system that includes an elongated inert support and at least two reservoirs containing a pharmaceutically active ingredient. The inert support has a number of wall segments that define at least two compartments arranged for accommodating the at least two reservoirs. The inert support is made of a material which prevents migration or diffusion of the active ingredient from one reservoir into the other or into the support. Since the drug delivery system is divided into compartments, one for each reservoir containing an active ingredient, the release rates of each active ingredient can be independently controlled or adjusted. This is due to the fact that there is no interaction between the active ingredients, and accordingly the active ingredients will not influence each other physically or chemically.