Nov 15, 2010 09:21 GMT  ·  By

I'm not really sure just how many of you out there are Star Trek fans, but in my case, that was the first thing that came to mind when taking a closer look at the PharmaJet needle-free liquid medicine delivery system, simply because the famous Sci-Fi series was the first time ever I'd ever come across such a concept. Anyway, those of you who don't recall exactly what I'm talking about should know that, in the series, the devices used for giving various drugs and medicine to patients had no needles, employing a high-pressure system in order to go through the skin and into the bloodstream. And, in fact, that's exactly the case with the PharmaJet needle-free system, designed to deliver liquid medications at high speed, creating a "liquid jet" that penetrates the skin and delivers the medicine through the skin in less than 1/3 of a second. The PharmaJet injector utilizes a single-use, sterile, auto-disable needle-free syringe and a spring-powered energy source that creates an optimal pressure profile. This combination results in a superior injection experience and feeling compared to prior injectors and in fact to needle-bearing syringes themselves. The patented needle-free injector system uses a novel spring system that requires no outside power source to operate, and it's also quite durable, being able to perform thousands of injections. The PharmaJet device can be disinfected and cleaned using standard medical disinfectants and cleaning solutions, while the single-use disposable syringe is made of medical grade polypropylene, the same material used in most standard needle syringes. The resulting product not only costs less, but is durable and compatible with liquid and lyophilized medications. The syringe can be filled at the time of injection from single or multi-dose standard vials with a PharmaJet vial adapter or it can be pre-filled. No details regarding the pricing for this thing have been made available, but I certainly hope that it will manage to find its way into pharmacies as soon as possible, given the painless experience it provides.