Wearable Injectors Positioned to Profit from the Expected Surge in Infusion Procedures

(Nashua, NH) – As drug discovery, development and commercialization continue to produce therapeutic biologicals, device designers are being challenged to address a host of issues that require ingenuity and creative thinking. This ongoing evolution has produced a new class of subcutaneous infusion devices that are designed to be worn by the patient. While allowing patients to self-administer high volume injectables, these devices are also expected to pose a cost-saving alternative to out-patient infusion centers.

About 20% of drugs in the pharmaceutical development pipeline are monoclonal antibodies. As currently formulated, these therapeutic biologicals require dosage volumes well in excess of the upper range for subcutaneous delivery. These drugs are currently delivered via infusion. The demographics of patient populations and the current trend in therapeutic drug development are coming together to create an increasingly steep demand curve for infusion. The costs and logistics of this convergence are a major driver of the energy behind patient-wearable devices.

Because biological drugs most often target chronic conditions, dosing strategies and treatment protocols must be developed for long-term use. The powerful physiological effects of antibodies, hormones and other biological drugs also increase the need for safety and compliance. Compliance with drug therapy and disease management protocols has been and is a primary concern within the healthcare and pharmaceutical industries. Efforts to enhance compliance are having a non-negligible effect on drug formulations and delivery decisions, and can be a significant factor in the prescribing decisions of most physicians. Compliance concerns have driven and continue to drive investment in new drug technologies.

Wearable injectors are expected to free patients from hours-long visits for traditional drug infusion while providing patients with access to a growing list of prefilled device drug products. Most of the devices that comprise the current generation of wearable injectors utilize a piston or piston-type method to deliver the drug. About half of the current generation of wearable injectors is electronic disposable models, another 30% are semi-disposable and the remainder are mechanical disposable units.

Initial growth in wearable injectors will come primarily from high volume drugs that can be administered subcutaneously. Wearable devices are well suited to meeting this need. In the long term, growth will include the switch of traditional outpatient infusibles to prefilled wearable injectors as a way of addressing the twin issues of patient logistics and healthcare cost containment.

These findings are contained in a new and comprehensive market report. The report - Wearable Injectors to 2020 - includes assessments of wearable injection devices and provides analysis of device designs and operating characteristics, assessments of development stage wearable injectable products, market sector forecasts, profiles of market sector participants, and detailed analysis of strategic and economic factors.

More information is available at www.applieddata.org

Source: Applied Data Research

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