Medicament delivery devices
AssigneeInnovata Biomed Limited
InventorPhilip Carl Parkes
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A medicament delivery device (1) comprises an actuation mechanism by successive operation of which a predetermined number of unit doses of medicament can be dispensed. The device includes a locking mechanism for preventing further operation of the actuation mechanism after dispensing of said predetermined number of unit doses. The locking mechanism comprises a resilient member (51), a formation (18) with which the resilient member (51) is engageable to disable operation of the actuation mechanism, and a barrier member (20) that prevents engagement of the resilient member (51) and the formation (18) until said predetermined number of unit doses has been dispensed. The device (1) may be a dry powder inhaler.
Claims20
A medicament delivery device comprising a push-button, a dispensing actuator for successively dispensing a predetermined number of unit doses of a medicament, a dose counter actuator and a locking mechanism for preventing further operation of the dispensing actuator after dispensing of said predetermined number of unit doses, characterised in that said locking mechanism comprises
- a resilient member,
- a recess or opening in a component of the device adjacent to the resilient member, with which the resilient member is engageable to disable operation of the dispensing actuator, and
- a barrier member that prevents engagement of the resilient member and the recess or opening until said predetermined number of unit doses has been dispensed,
- wherein operation of the device is brought about by means of the push-button which acts upon the dispensing actuator and the dose counter actuator that are integrally formed as a single component that undergoes a reciprocating action, and the push-button not only causes dispensing of a unit dose of medicament, but also operates a dose counting mechanism that provides to a user of the device an indication of the number of doses that have been dispensed or alternatively the number of doses that remain to be dispensed;
- wherein the resilient member is an elongate arm which is formed integrally with the dose counter actuator and which is displaced along an axis parallel to the axis of reciprocating movement of the dose counter actuator;
- and wherein the barrier member is part of the dose counting mechanism, the barrier member being interposed between the resilient member and the recess or opening until the last of the predetermined number of unit doses has been dispensed, wherein operation of the device to dispense the last of the predetermined doses has the effect of removing the barrier member from between the resilient member and the recess or opening, thereby permitting the resilient member to engage the recess or opening and preventing further operation of the device.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.