System and method for application of medicament into the nasal passage

A dispensing system for the delivery of medicament to nasal passage, which comprises:

• a vial for holding a volume of medicament;
• a pump having an outlet in a nozzle portion, an elastic, deformable body portion connected to said nozzle portion and containing a piston mechanism and a dosage cavity of a predetermined volume for collecting medicament from said vial, and a fluid inlet orifice in fluid communication with said vial and said dosage cavity, said piston mechanism being operatively coupled to said deformable body portion to move along longitudinal axis of the pump in connection with deformation of the deformable body portion along its longitudinal axis, said nozzle portion having a wall thickness which decreases from a first point along a direction of elongated axis of symmetry of said nozzle portion toward a tip of the nozzle portion, and said nozzle portion having a rigid shaft received therein and interfacing said outlet to form a first normally-closed valve, said rigid shaft and interior of said nozzle portion defining a swirling chamber for said medicament prior to expulsion via said outlet;
• a housing retaining said vial and said pump, said housing exposing said outlet, and said housing having a guide element for aligning, when in a first position, said outlet with said nasal passage and screening said nasal passage from view;
• a trigger operationally coupled to said housing for actuating, by a single actuating motion of said trigger, said dispensing system to sequentially fill said dosage cavity with medicament from said vial and subsequently discharge said medicament from said dosage cavity;
• a lever operationally coupled to said trigger and releasably engaging said deformable body portion when said body portion is in ambient position, said lever being movable to a first non-ambient position in concert with a first phase of said actuating motion of said trigger and deforming at least a portion of said deformable body portion, and in concert moving said piston mechanism, along the longitudinal axis towards the posterior end of said housing, displacement of said piston mechanism corresponding to displacement of the lever between said ambient position and said first non-ambient position causing flow of medicament from said vial to said dosage cavity to fill said dosage cavity;
• and
• a release arm internally positioned in the housing to oppose said lever at said first non-ambient position so as to disengage said lever from said deformable body portion upon continuation of said actuating motion into a second phase, wherein said deformable body portion returns to said ambient position upon disengagement from said lever and said piston mechanism moves in concert with said deformable body portion towards said nozzle portion to pressurize medicament in said dosage cavity and discharge said medicament through said outlet of said nozzle portion.

A method of delivering medicament to nasal passage by means of a medicament dispensing system having a medicament vial;

• a pump with an outlet defined by a first normally-closed valve, a swirling chamber in a nozzle portion, and an elastic, deformable body portion connected to said nozzle portion, said body portion containing a piston mechanism and a dosage cavity of a predetermined volume for collecting medicament from said vial, and a fluid channel between said dosage cavity and said swirling chamber;
• a housing retaining said vial and said pump;
• a trigger operationally coupled to said housing for actuating said dispensing system;
• a lever operationally coupled to said trigger and releasably engaging said deformable body portion;
• and a release arm internally positioned in the housing;
• which method comprises:
• channeling medicament from said vial to said dosage cavity by actuating said trigger through a first phase of a single continuous actuating motion whereby said lever is moved from an ambient position to a first non-ambient position in concert with said first phase of said single continuous actuating motion and deforms at least a portion of said elastic, deformable body portion;
• actuating said trigger through a second phase of said single continuous actuating motion whereby said lever is opposed by said release arm at said first non-ambient position so as to disengage said lever from said deformable body portion;
• pressurizing said medicament in said dosage cavity to create medicament flow to said swirling chamber via said fluid channel by means of initiating a return movement of said elastic, deformable body portion to said ambient position upon disengagement from said lever;
• generating swirling of said medicament within said swirling chamber by means of tangential connection of said fluid channel to said swirling chamber;
• and
• discharging said medicament from said swirling chamber through said first normally-closed valve by means of completing said return movement of said deformable body portion to said ambient position and pressurizing said medicament to reach a threshold pressure sufficient to open said first normally-closed valve.