Increased Syringe Performance Means Increased Patient Comfort

Most physicians agree - of all the services that can be performed for patients, eliminating the pain and fear of injections is at the top of the list. How can pain be minimized? One approach is to maximize syringe performance - whether the syringe is employed by a clinician, in an autoinjector, or in a wearable device. A critical element of syringe performance is the break-loose force. This is the force needed to overcome the plunger inertia in a filled syringe to initiate plunger movement and introduction of drug product. A lower, more consistent, break-loose force can provide for increased patient comfort.

Break-loose force can be influenced by several factors: plunger design, elastomer formula, coatings on plunger and syringe, materials and needle gauge. West considers these factors in designing products, in particular:

• Plunger Design. Plungers, and in particular NovaPure® 1 mL Long and 1 mL Standard plungers, are designed to maintain required container closure integrity, while minimizing contact area between plunger and syringe, thus reducing friction and break-loose force. 
• Coatings. Plungers can be coated with either a baked-on/adhered silicone polymer coating (B2), or a silicone polymer applied from suspension – reducing friction between plunger and syringe, and thus break-loose force.
• Materials. West offers syringes comprising polymer – the Daikyo Crystal Zenith® cyclic-olefin polymer. Because surface energy of this polymer is much lower than glass, there is intrinsically less friction with the plunger, so no silicone coating is needed on the inside of the syringe barrel or on the plunger.
  In fact, Analytical Laboratory Services has established a focus area in delivery and device performance. This comprises staff with the expertise in technology and regulations regarding syringe performance, and a state-of-the-art laboratory to experimentally evaluate performance. To see what West product is best suited to your drug product, contact a Technical Customer Support (TCS) representative.

NovaPure® is a registered trademark of West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc., in the United States and other jurisdictions.

Daikyo Crystal Zenith® is a registered trademark of Daikyo Seiko, Ltd.
Daikyo Crystal Zenith® technology is licensed from Daikyo Seiko, Ltd.