Drug delivery devices having separable microneedles and methods
AssigneeGeorgia Tech Research Corporation
InventorsDevin V. McALLISTER, Mark R. PRAUSNITZ, Sebastien HENRY
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Drug delivery devices and methods are provided for delivering one or more drugs into a biological tissue. The devices include microneedles that may be separable from the drug delivery devices, control drug release rate and/or direction, or a combination thereof. When the microneedles are separable, a force applied to the drug delivery devices may be effective to penetrate a biological tissue with the microneedles and then to separate the microneedles from the drug delivery devices. The drug delivery devices may be capable of achieving discrete periods of drug release. Methods for delivery drug with microneedles also are provided.
Claims26
A method of inserting microneedles into a biological tissue for administering a drug into the biological tissue comprising:
- positioning a drug delivery device on a surface of the biological tissue, the drug delivery device comprising an array of microneedles extending from a substrate, wherein the microneedles comprise the drug;
- and
- applying a force to the device effective to (i) penetrate the surface of the biological tissue with the array of microneedles, and (ii) separate the array of microneedles from the substrate,
- wherein the force applies or activates a shearing force to the substrate effective to substantially separate the array of microneedles from the substrate.
A method comprising:
- positioning a drug delivery device on a surface of a biological tissue, wherein the drug delivery device comprises an array of microneedles extending from a substrate toward the surface, wherein each microneedle comprises (i) a tip portion comprising a first material which comprises a drug, and (ii) a proximal end portion comprising a second material, wherein the first and second materials have an interface of different materials forming a predefined region;
- pressing the drug delivery device against the surface to cause at least the tip portions of the microneedles to penetrate into the biological tissue;
- and
- separating the tip portions from the proximal end portions about the predefined region without use of a barb feature to resist withdrawal of the microneedles from the biological tissue.
A method comprising:
- positioning a drug delivery device on a surface of a human's skin, wherein the drug delivery device comprises an array of microneedles extending from a base substrate toward the surface, wherein the microneedles each comprise a tip portion comprising a first material in which a drug is dispersed, and a proximal end portion comprising a second material which is different in composition from the first material;
- applying an input force to the drug delivery device to at least partially penetrate the human's skin with the microneedles,
- separating the tip portions from the proximal end portions about an interface of the first and second materials upon the at least partially penetration of the human's skin with the microneedles.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.