Injection device

#This disclosure relates to the field of injection devices for delivering medicament, in particular to injection monitoring circuitry for injection devices, which may be installed for example, in a plunger rods for an injection device such as prefilled syringes.

#Effective medical treatment often relies upon patient adherence to a particular dosage regime prescribed by a healthcare provider, the regime involving taking a complete dose at a specified frequency for a specified duration of time. However, ensuring patient adherence to prescribed medication regimes is often a challenge for medicaments that are self-administered. Injection devices such as prefilled syringes are widely used to supply patients with medicaments for self-administration. Prefilled syringes are also often used in clinical trials because of their simplicity relative to autoinjectors.

#Reliable automated gathering of data each time a medicament dose is taken by a user of an injection device is of interest to healthcare providers, injection device manufacturers and pharmaceutical companies. This has the advantage of reducing reliance on patient recollection and truthfulness when correlating treatment efficacy with a given medication regime. There is an incentive to ensure that data is gathered every time a medicament dose is administered and to determine whether or not a complete dose has been administered. It may also be useful to provide user with feedback regarding successful and unsuccessful injections and with regard to their own injection technique.

#FIG. 1 schematically illustrates an injection system according to the present technique;

#FIGS. 2A and 2B schematically illustrate a distal plunger rod end and a co-operating resilient stopper of an injection device;

#FIG. 2C schematically illustrates an example plunger rod having a magnetic coupling with a resilient stopper of an injection device;

#In the present disclosure, the following terms may be understood in view of the below explanations:

#The term “injection device” may refer to a device intended for the injection of a medicament to the body and includes devices configured for various delivery methods, such as intradermal, subcutaneous, intramuscular, intravenous, intraosseous, intraperitoneal, intrathecal, epidural, intracardiac, intraarticular, intracavernous, and intravitreal, which may include via a cannula, catheter or similar device. The term includes syringes of all types, devices that contain said syringes such as auto-injectors, pen-injectors, patch injectors and other similar devices.

#The term “user” may refer to a medical practitioner, end user or other user associated therewith.