Injections are used to deliver drugs to the bloodstreams and muscles. Needle-free injection technology (NFIT) is the need of the hour as they are effective and fast way of administration of medicine without pain.
Needle-free injections make use of jet with high speed that punctures very tiny hole and delivers the medicine without needle. These injections are largely employed for the purpose of administration of vaccines, antibiotics and insulin without the piercing of skin and seems as a promising alternative.
These injections employ different means for the transfer of drug through skin such as shock waves, gas pressure, electrophoresis, etc. NFIT not only reduces the factor of pain but also enables the reuse of injections making them cost effective. The total time taken by NFIT is one third of a second (1/3) to deliver the drug completely.
Early discovery of needleless injection
In history, needled injections and syringes have been used over the past 150 years for the drug administration. These have drawbacks, adding to the high cost due non-reusability and piercing of skin is painful. In order to overcome these drawbacks, needle free injections were invented.
Needle-free injections technology have their roots as early in the history as 19th century and have addressed to all the problems of needled injections making them convenient, less expensive and safer. NFIT are used to administer medicines to muscle cells also. These injections were first described by Marshell Lockhart and developed in 1940.
Variety of needle free injection
There have been advancements for better delivery by needle free injection over the past years. The different types of needle free injections such as, Liquid injections, Powder injections and Depot or projectile injection have been developed and are used now.
Liquid injections use high pressure jets that punches a very tiny hole in skin, powder injections use gas jets to deliver powdered medicine on skin that soaks through skin pores and and projectile injections employs a projectile that is inserted into muscles and it keeps releasing medicine slowly over the period of time.
Insulins and many vaccines such as, rabies vaccine, yellow fever vaccine, measles vaccines are now administered by means of NFIT and have results comparable to needled injections. Not only human is benefited by this technology, but animals also showed effective immunity with NFIT.
With development in this technology, great deals of investments have been done and now several companies are mass producing these needle free injections with multiple types such as, bioject, multipore orifice, vita jets, jupiter jet and many more.
Future is healthy, no needles anymore!
The future of needle free injection technology is bright, many companies are working on its production. NFIT helps in minimizing patient’s fear towards the needles. The benefits include fast, harmless and effective administration of drugs.
This technology has overcome the problems of conventional needle injections especially the problem of improper disposals. This technology is employed for administration of insulin to diabetic patients. They have to insert insulin several times in a day which is a painful event with needled injections. In addition, many companies promises to present cost effective NFIT for use by underdeveloped countries too.
“Scary Needles, no more”
The author is a research scholar from Biotechnology department of Kinnaird College For Women University. Lahore