Glass or Plastic? The Evolving World of Drug Delivery

Glass or Plastic? Check(ing) Out the Evolving World of Drug Delivery

Greystone Research Associates Announces Five New Research Surveys on Injectable Drug Delivery

(Amherst, NH) – Drug developers are facing a growing list of choices for packaging and delivering injectables, as the device sector continues to produce injectors and syringes that aim to address the evolving needs of caregivers and end users. These changes are occurring across a range of devices classes, including pen injectors, needle-free injectors, and prefilled syringes and the autoinjectors designed to accept them. Greystone’s continuing coverage of this segment, which began in 2003, has produced five new reports that have been created and produced to provide market participants with all of the data and information that is essential to successfully competing in this market space.

Prefilled Syringes
Glass devices represent more than 90% of the prefilled syringes, while plastic PFS devices dominate in the area of emergency medicine. One key area of differentiation among prefillable glass syringe suppliers results from the type, source and material qualities of syringe accessory parts and processes. Syringe components such as plunger stoppers, and the type and quality of lubricant and barrier coating materials offer important buyer selection options for drug packaging decision makers. The development of plastic prefillable syringes based on materials such as cyclic olefin copolymers (COCs), is an important trend to watch. While non-glass prefilled syringes continue to be refined, beyond the occasional exception such as Tercica’s somatuline depot for the treatment of acromegaly, their use is still limited to niche areas such as emergency medicine and drug reconstitution.This report analyzes prefillable syringes in both glass and plastic and the suppliers designing, developing and producing them, and examines eleven important prefilled syringe therapeutic segments and examines key regulatory, economic and competitive factors that represent potential barriers to commercial success.

Pen Injectors
Advances in synthetic materials and concurrent development partnerships between pen designers and drug developers are important factors in the growth of this segment. With product evaluations, industry data and forecasts, pen injector company profiles, and detailed analysis of design and economic factors, this report has been organized and written to provide pharmaceutical professionals, drug delivery market participants, and healthcare organizations with all of the information necessary to understand the growing importance of pen injectors on drug development and delivery.

Injectable Drug Delivery to 2018
The past decade has seen a dramatic shift in terms of the types of approved injectable drugs, the diseases they target, and the devices used to deliver them. This shift has fostered change on several levels of the healthcare sector. The injectable drug segment has seen a marked increase in the level of drug/device integration, as prefilled syringes and specialized injection devices proliferate in response to safety and economic challenges posed by recombinant protein drugs, while administration of injectables has moved increasingly from practitioner offices and healthcare facilities to patient homes. This report examines the key therapeutic, product, market and regulatory factors for injectable drugs across ten major disease and therapeutic classes, providing essential insight and forecasts into the implications of this evolving landscape.

Autoinjectors to 2018
While autoinjectors are sometimes designed to work with a particular injectable product as a form of pharmaceutical branding, the typical autoinjector is designed to fit one or more standard sizes of prefilled disposable syringes. Until recently, autoinjectors were designed to be reused. The reason was that the injectors were too expensive to be successfully marketed as a throw-away device. Recent improvements in materials technology and device design have led to the creation of a class of autoinjectors that can be made economically in high production quantities, opening the door for the disposable autoinjector, and providing expanded opportunities for both patient and drug marketer.

Advanced Devices for Injectable Drugs
While designers have acquired many powerful design tools during the past decade – tools that include 3D CAD design software and high performance materials, design team have been increasingly relying on classic end user research to define the design targets for their projects .This report examines injection devices engineered with features that advance the state-of-the-art for injectable drugs, providing essential insight and forecasts into the implications of this evolving landscape.
More information on the publications mentioned above is available at
http://www.greystoneassociates.org

About Greystone

Greystone Research Associates is a medical technology consulting firm focused on the areas of medical market strategy, product commercialization, venture development, and market research. We assist medical and healthcare market participants in achieving their business objectives through the creation of detailed development strategies, product commercialization programs, and comprehensive market and technology research and analysis. Our market research publications are designed, researched and written to provide timely and insightful information and data on focused market segments, with the aim of providing market participants with the essential knowledge to refine and execute their marketing plans and financial targets.

www.greystoneassociates.org

Source: Greystone Research Associates

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