Alternative Syringe and Needle Design for Clog-free Delivery of High-concentration Suspensions

Needle clogging is one of the key challenges in delivery of suspension (i.e., multi-phase) formulations. It is a phenomenon by which the particles (i.e., solid phase) accumulate locally to occlude the flow, leading to injection failure. This work proposes alternative needle hub designs for suspension delivery systems, enabling enhanced injection process by reducing the risk of particle jamming. Rapid prototyping was harnessed to experimentally evaluate the injection behavior using our custom-built injection characterization set-up by monitoring plunger force throughout injection. Improved performance of several proposed designs was demonstrated compared to standard (unmodified) needles across a range of high-concentration suspension formulations. The proposed tapered contractions offer competitive advantage of enabling clog-free delivery of high-concentration suspension formulations that would otherwise exhibit failure using conventional syringe/needle systems, thereby potentially accelerating time to market.