Needle-based injections are very common in modern medicine, notably in vaccination efforts worldwide. However, needle phobia and infection risks affect patient compliance with medical treatments, while millions of used needles contaminate the environment. Lastly, the effectiveness of certain drugs increases when injected intradermally, but targeting the dermis is challenging. Thus, new minimal-invasive procedures are needed. Jet injectors are needle-free medical devices that pressurize thin liquid filaments to penetrate the skin. Jet injections have been effective in subcutaneous and intramuscular delivery, ex vivo, and in vivo. However, the expected needle-free revolution for medical treatments has neither been fulfilled, nor widely commercialized due to factors such as: a) Bruising, a painful consequence of delivering large volumes in a single location. b) When using wrong energy settings, or misalignment with respect to the skin, the injected liquid can perfuse other layers. c) The rejected liquid splashes back, leading to an incorrect dose delivery, risks of cross contamination of the injector parts, or splash-back on the care giver. d) Commercial jet injection methods, such as springs or compressed gas, are noisy which can distress the patient. Hence, there is a need to develop a new way to deliver smaller doses with maximum accuracy in targeting specific skin layers. Bold-Jet is aimed at revolutionizing the experience of people who receive or perform frequent injections by developing for the first time a needle-free device using microjets that is safer, minimally invasive, and eco-friendly. By avoiding the use of needles, we can increase adherence to treatments by patients with fear to sharps and expand clinical routes for existing drugs and treatment.
The objectives of this project were:
1. Product Development towards Minimum Viable Product: an easy-to-use handheld injector, integrating lasers and microfluidics with commercial liquids to be injected (e.g. vaccines and inks).
2. Validation in real world settings: The ease-of-use of the technology will be validated in realistic settings. Specific versions of the injector will be tested with partners in hospitals and cosmetic/tattooing scenarios.
3. Commercialization: The intended commercialization path will be two-folded: first, we will focus on selling the injector to first adopters in the markets with lowest entry barriers. Second, we will finalise the documentation to fulfil the regulations for entry to the medical market.
