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Dear all
We are two engineering students from the Technical University of Denmark and are writing our masters thesis. We both have great experience and interest in product development of medical equipment. In corporation with the Danish company Bang & Olufsen Medicom an exciting objective was formed. The object is to develop a new and better injection device, that meets the requirements of the end users in regard to features, number of user steps, intuitiveness, safety, ergonomics, design etc. Our goal is to have a prototype ready by August 2009 and we hope that Bang & Olufsen Medicom will get to take the device through to the next levels and ultimately, an implementation on the market.
This injection device will be designed for you, meeting your needs. In regards to this we would like to know a bit about you and have you evaluate some different possible features in an injection device.
We have made a questionnaire that should take no longer then 5 min to fill out. The questionnaire can be found by following the link below.
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=B ... LU2w_3d_3d
By answering this questionnaire you will have influence on the design of the next generation of injection devices.
IMPORTANT: You should only answer the questionnaire if you have experience with self injection!!!
We hope that you will use a couple of minutes to fill in this questionnaire, and thereby helping us, to help you
Best regards Jens Gad and Morten Karlsen

Ok, just exactly how creative can you get with a needle? The needle is max'ed out as an idea ...... just like cassette tapes. You need something revolutionary like CD's with a totally new Dr. McCoy technology.

How about using something like they way water gets decellinated through a membrane to get the medicine in your body without a needle? This is a multimillion dollar idea. IF this takes off you need to fund MS research at Vanderbilt University. That's a fair deal, ya think? Ken

My injection device for copaxone works really well. I recently broke my arm and my squemish husband had to do it--no problem, he was very pleased that he faced that dragon down

itis hard for me to imagine a need for somthing "better". It is darned good.

Hi, notasperfectasyou.
It would of cause be the simplest if you could just get a pill or a dermal patch as you suggest. The problem however is that the molecules of theese medicins (typically newer bio-drugs) are very big and fragile, and can only get into your system via needles. Another factor to considor is that you only assimilate a small fraction of the active medicin when you eat or inhale it, which means that the doses you take are actually much bigger than what you need. When the drug is very expensive, needles can be used as the assimilation in the body is 100% The needles are always the last option, but unfortunately sometimes it will be the only option.

We are studying mechanical engineering, so redesigning drugformulations are not our specialty. Our goul is to make it easier for people to inject themselves by designing injection aids. For some people, the mear sight of needles will make them skip their medication even though it worsens their condition. We want to change that!

Thank you for your answers so far, please keep them coming;-)

Seems to me if you want something new, you need to let go of any and all preconceived notions. When you start out thinking of all the reasons why something cannot be, you become extremely limited to the point where creativity ceases. I'm sure the record needle people felt similarly at one time. Good Luck, Ken

mrhodes40 wrote:My injection device for copaxone works really well. I recently broke my arm and my squemish husband had to do it--no problem, he was very pleased that he faced that dragon down

itis hard for me to imagine a need for somthing "better". It is darned good.

Marie, are you still doing the Copaxone?

Yes indeed. I have been on it for a long time many many years. It controls my RA very well--don't know if it helps MS in me

mrhodes40 wrote:Yes indeed. I have been on it for a long time many many years. It controls my RA very well--don't know if it helps MS in me

Seriously, about the RA?

Hi Jens
sounds like great research. I am sorry - I didnn't complete the questionnaire - I found there were too many questions that seemed to already be a feature in my existing injection-pen so it was a bit too long to answer.
Is there any chance you could shorten the amount of questions?

Yeah it works well for my RA I have called and told them so, told them the first year, but they have not developed it for that yet, I believe they will...but they will alter it a little to get a new patent on it. It's about off patent so it is useless to them to do trials to prove it for RA now becasue the generic companies would be the beneficiary, but they can have assured success of it if it is redesigned a tiny bit so it is newly patentable for other inflammatory diseases like RA.

This is one reason the "me too" drugs are such a bonanza for drug companies and why they keep developiing another version of something like an NSAID--they already have proof of concept so they do not need to do any expensive research, the little bit they do need to do is virtually assured of success.

So rather than really innovating the pharmaceutical market they are really just copy catting what is already proven, then hitting the marketing hard to make their --whatever it is---sound much better than the existing drug. There is no need really for consumers to have 4 kinds of interferon. But if a new company makes a new interferon they can expect it to work like the other ones, similar safety and efficacy and if they can do a better advertising campaign than the other guys and make us BELIEVE their version is better, well it is an easy win for them with no risk.

Unfortunately the FDA des not require them to compare themselves to drugs already on the market, so we usually do not know what actually does work better.

This is one reason the market place is so full of me too drugs--and why true innovation is so rare.

Jens / Morten

I like the idea of a kinder, gentler injection device VERY MUCH.

I used the Rebiject II for two weeks before I decided to get over the fear of watching needle enter flesh. I'd much rather GENTLY insert needle than shoot myself with a dart gun. I don't care for the mechanics of the Rebiject II from the assembly to the forceful administration and I especially don't like the popping noise from the spring action (it always caused an involuntary jerk of my hand), psychologically, the noise and force was more unpleasant for me than seeing the bare needle. Good luck with your research and development.

P.S. I did complete the survey...An injector that vibrates when full dose is delivered??? Are you serious??? I don't want the slightest hint of vibration when there's a needle in me please!

Hi Notasperfectasyou,
i like your optimism and i agree with you in the way you need to think outside the box to be really innovative. We have too be realistic though and get the best result out of the time given. (6 months) If our project ends up helping some needlephoepic people using an old school needle -> leeding to an overall better compliance and better control of their disease, we will have done our work and have made a difference. I hope, just like you, that the right people with the needed competences, time and money will invent a way to transport big biomedicin molecules in to the bloodstream without a needle:-)

Hi wonderfull world,
thank you for trying to fill out the questionaire. Unfortunately we will not be able to make at shorter version. If you sent the questionaire at the end, we can use the questions you DID answer.. so thank you, it wasn't a waste!
Jens