Why Prefilled Syringes Are Taking Over The Parenteral Market
Pharmaceutical injectables, commonly referred to as parenteral drug products or parenteral drugs, have been rising in popularity over oral formulations. One reason for the rapid increase in injectables over pills or tablets is that injectable drug administration has a higher bioavailability for the administered active pharmaceutical ingredient (API), where API is the part of the drug formulation that has a therapeutic effect on the body. Higher bioavailability of the API means that less drug is required to have a therapeutic effect for a patient. Less patient drug administration results in lower risk and severity of side effects for patients. Less API also decreases the production costs of the drug per treatment. Thus, there are both therapeutic and monetary benefits to parenteral medications when it comes to bioavailability.
With the rise in the creation of new parenteral products, prefilled syringes have also risen in popularity. Find out the top ten reasons why prefilled syringes have risen in popularity over other parenteral packaging types below.
#1: Prefilled syringes eliminate the waste of expensive drugs
Therapies that use vials or other containers for syringe filling require overfilling the vials to account for product spillage during manual syringe filling. Prefilled syringes eliminate product overfilling and thus eliminate the waste of expensive biomolecules. Indeed, vaccines, antithrombotic treatments, and various home health care products (such as growth hormone, treatments for rheumatoid arthritis, and therapies for multiple sclerosis) benefit from administration using prefilled syringes.
#2: Presterilized ready-to-fill syringes are ubiquitously available
With advancements in manufacturing technology, syringes for filling can be easily manufactured by the millions.
#3: Contract manufacturers specializing in lower-cost, high-speed syringe filling are readily available
Low-cost, high-speed filling systems make the manufacturing of prefilled syringes accessible to pharmaceutical companies and bulk pharma distributors across the board.
#4: Prefilled syringes eliminate dosage errors
Unlike vials, which are overfilled to account for expected product loss during syringe filling at the point of use, syringes contain the exact amount of product needed to administer a single dose.
#5: Medications in prefilled syringes are easier to administer
Prefilled syringes eliminate several steps required before injection of a parenteral drug packaged in a vial.
In addition to removing dosage errors, prefilled syringes save syringe preparation time for caregivers and are easier to administer. Since fewer manipulations are required to deliver the drug to the patent with prefilled syringes, the sterility of the dosage from a prefilled syringe is nearly guaranteed.
#6: Prefilled syringes are easier for home use and increase patient compliance
In general, prefilled syringes are more convenient for end-users, whether these users are health care professionals or patients. Prefilled syringes are also easier to use in emergencies since they do not require filling preparation time. Overall, the speed and ease at which treatments can be administered increase patient compliance for parenteral treatments administered at home. Increased patient compliance leads to better treatment and clinical outcomes (a win-win for patients, doctors, and pharmaceutical companies).
#7: Prefilled syringes reduce medication errors
Prefilled syringes allow for better dose accuracy as they eliminate human error. Prefilled syringes also prevent misidentification regarding the medication being administered and the dosage administered to the patient. Further, prefilled syringes support better regulation of controlled drugs such as narcotics.
#8: Prefilled syringes lower injection costs
With prefilled syringes, there are fewer costs for syringe preparation (since syringes are already filled). Furthermore, syringes are easy to store, easy to dispose of, and fewer materials are involved (no need for vials containing parenteral products or solutions to reconstitute parenteral products before filling).
#9: Availability of technology that allows for syringe filling of highly viscous products or gels
It was difficult to find manufacturers with rapid-fill-finish machines that could fill syringes or vials with highly viscous materials in the past. However, modern technological advances have allowed for the bulk filling of these products, such as hyaluronic acid-based injections.
#10: Prefilled syringes reduce the risk of medical complications following treatment
Due to precise dosage measurements and ease of administration, prefilled syringes reduce the risk of medical complications following treatment.
Summary
Overall, prefilled syringes offer a wide range of benefits over other parenteral product packaging options. Prefilled syringes are accessible to manufacturers, cost-effective, time-saving, and easy to administer. These benefits, amongst others, are the reason for the sudden rise in prefilled syringe availability in the parenteral market.
MycoScience is a contract manufacturing organization specializing in sterile syringe and vial filling. MycoScience also offers Preservative Efficacy Testing, Sterilization Validations, Bioburden Testing, Cleaning Validations, Microbial Aerosol Challenge Testing, Accelerated Aging, Microbiology Testing, Cytotoxicity Testing, Bacterial Endotoxin Testing, EO Residual Testing, Package Integrity Testing & Environmental Monitoring services medical devices and allied industries. MycoScience is an ISO 13485 certified facility.
References
Michael J. Akers. Sterile Drug Products Formulation, Packaging, Manufacture, and Quality. Drugs and the Pharmaceutical Sciences. Informa Healthcare. 2010.
