Needle shield puller for drug delivery system

A drug delivery system comprising:

• a drug delivery mechanism including a medicament container, an injection needle in communication with the medicament container, a drive assembly for dispensing medicament from the medicament container through the injection needle;
• a protective shield disposed about the injection needle;
• and
• a puller device comprising:
• a cup shaped body defining an axis and having a sidewall that circumscribes an interior space, a distal bottom wall and a proximal end opening in communication with the interior space, the protective shield inserted into the interior space through the proximal end opening, the sidewall defining sidewall openings, a pair of fingers, each finger of the pair of fingers disposed in a corresponding one of the sidewall openings and located opposite each other relative to the interior space, each finger of the pair of fingers being flexibly coupled with the sidewall at a proximal end of each finger of the pair of fingers, each finger of the pair of fingers further including a plurality of projections extending in a circumferential direction in parallel to one another and projecting toward the interior space whereby the plurality of projections on each finger of the pair of fingers are grippingly engaged with the protective shield to thereby facilitate removal of the protective shield, wherein each projection of the plurality of projections on each finger of the pair of fingers includes a proximally facing surface and a distally facing surface, the proximally and distally facing surfaces extending between a first radially inner limit and a first radially outer limit of each projection of the plurality of projections, and wherein each finger of the pair of fingers further includes a distally facing engagement surface disposed near a distal end of each respective finger, wherein each of the distally facing engagement surfaces extends between a second radially inner limit and a second radially outer limit, wherein the second radially outer limit is disposed farther radially outwardly of the first radially outer limit.

A drug delivery system comprising:

• a drug delivery mechanism including a medicament container, an injection needle in communication with the medicament container, a drive assembly for dispensing medicament from the medicament container through the injection needle;
• a protective shield disposed about the injection needle;
• and
• a puller device configured to remove the protective shield, the device comprising:
• a puller body having a sidewall that circumscribes an interior space about a longitudinal axis, a distal bottom wall interconnected to the sidewall, and a proximal end opening in communication with the interior space, the protective shield being insertable into the interior space through the proximal end opening, wherein the sidewall defines sidewall openings therein;
• a plurality of resilient fingers, each resilient finger of the plurality of resilient fingers disposed in a corresponding sidewall opening of the sidewall openings defined in the sidewall and located opposite each other relative to the interior space, each resilient finger of the plurality of the resilient fingers having a finger proximal end flexibly coupled with the sidewall and extending distally toward the distal bottom wall to a finger distal end;
• and
• each resilient finger of the plurality of resilient fingers further including a plurality of projections axially arranged and extending toward the interior space and engaging the protective shield in a manner to facilitate removal of the protective shield during removal of the puller device, each projection of the plurality of projections having a proximal surface and a distal surface, wherein the distal surface of a distalmost projection of the plurality of projections of each respective resilient finger defines a distal engagement surface, the distal engagement surface extends farther radially outward than the distal surface of at least one of the other projections of the plurality of projections.