Delivery of modern drugs poses some problems and Dr James McKeage may have an answer.
McKeage is a Research Fellow with the Bioinstrumentation Lab at the Auckland Bioengineering Institute (ABI) based at Waipapa Taumata Rau, University of Auckland. He focuses on needle-free jet injection technology where fluid drugs are delivered as a fine, high-speed jet. His goal is to use this technology to allow patient self-administration and improve patient outcomes.
“Much of the focus has been on the needle-free aspect, but I’m interested in how we use that technology to improve both the volume and speed of delivery,” says McKeage.
“Currently injections through the skin are limited to around 2mL. The tissue becomes full; it can’t absorb any more liquid. Some drugs, particularly new cancer drugs, are made up of large proteins and are thick and gloopy, so they must be thinned with saline. The resultant low-concentration, high-volume liquid can only be delivered very slowly through an intravenous infusion in a clinic. This means patients must travel to hospitals or clinics for treatment.”
McKeage and Professor Andrew Taberner from the ABI have found that performing many, small jet injections at the same time might overcome this problem.
“By performing many jet injections simultaneously, we can very quickly deliver very large volumes, many times greater than the ~2 mL limit of current injections. This could allow patients to receive their treatment at home in less than 1 second, rather than the hours spent traveling to hospitals and having the medicine dripped into a vein.”
McKeage and his team are investigating this ‘multi-jet injection’ technique both needle-free and with microneedles. Microneedles break through the epidermis. They deliver the liquid drug through many small jets that penetrate past the ends of the microneedles and into the subcutaneous (or muscle) tissue.
Delivery through hollow microneedles is typically associated with small volumes, or delivery over long timescales. Forming jets through hollow microneedles enables much greater delivery volumes.
“Relative to needle-free jet injection, microneedle-assisted multi-jet injection seems to improve the consistency of delivery success,” says McKeage.
McKeage says this approach may be particularly beneficial for cancer patients receiving ‘monoclonal antibody’ therapies as these are needed every few weeks over long periods of time.
The team has demonstrated in their lab that they can successfully deliver these very large volumes into skin. Now they are keen to show that this technique will work on people.
“The first step is to develop our device into something that is suitable to be tested on people.” says McKeage
A development grant from Te Tītoki Mataora | MedTech Research Translator will support this next phase of development, taking them one step further down the commercialisation pathway.
“Performing an initial trial on volunteers, showing that multi-jet injection can deliver these large volumes quickly and comfortably, is the major milestone we are working toward. It’s what all the oncologists and pharmaceutical experts that we speak to want to see.”
“We believe our device can cater to all these challenges and enable patients to self-administer at home, reducing pressure on the health system and improving patient outcomes,” says McKeage.
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