Needleless injector drug capsule and a method for filling thereof
A method for filling needleless injector capsules with liquid drug, whereby dissolved gas within the drug is replaced by a less soluble gas in order to reduce the inclusion of gas bubbles, or to prevent the growth of bubbles during storage and thereby prevent breakage of the capsules.
1. A method of reducing breakage of a needle-free injector drug capsule, comprising:
preventing growth of bubbles in a liquid drug during storage by sparging the liquid drug with an inert gas having a solubility of 0.5 cm 3 to 25 cm 3 in 100 cm 3 of the liquid drug to obtain a sparged liquid drug;
loading the sparged liquid drug into a glass capsule strengthened with ion exchange; and
storing the capsule.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein prior to loading the liquid drug into the capsule the capsule is evacuated to about 0.5 mbar.
3. The method as claimed in claim 1 , further comprising:
sealing the capsule in an atmosphere of the inert gas prior to loading the capsule.
4. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the inert gas is selected from the group consisting of helium, argon, neon, krypton, xenon, nitrogen, a chlorofluorocarbon, a hydrofluorocarbon, and a mixture thereof.
5. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the inert gas does not comprise helium.
6. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the inert gas comprises helium.
7. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the liquid drug is chosen from: a solution, and a suspension.
8. The method as claimed in claim 1 , further comprising:
forcing the inert gas through a filter comprising apertures of not more than 0.2 μm prior to contacting the gas with the liquid drug.
9. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein bubbles are prevented from growing above 2 μl in volume.