Can you imagine that one day the coronavirus will be history, a creepy story to tell your grandkids?
In the healthcare industry, the story we’ll tell is a different story. It’s at times like these that we truly see the importance of the healthcare industry, which is persisting against all the odds.
This crisis has made it clear that the trends towards homecare, improved patient compliance and quality of care utilizing self-administered therapy, and a growing awareness of the environmental impact of products as well as the associated costs will drive the development of solutions that meet these needs. Home care integrates patient care with the various activities of daily living. A balanced approach to tomorrow’s healthcare involves developing solutions that enable as much patient care as possible in a home environment.
COVID-19 has demonstrated how much our lives is dependent on others. Our needs and desires have to be balanced with our responsibility to the world around us, not only as individuals but also as companies and countries. The pharmaceutical industry has to contribute its part to this global effort; that’s why, when E3D commenced the development of Flexi-Q platform for the mechanical auto-injectors, it started with the end user’s physical and emotional needs, focusing on user populations that represent the most challenging cases of physically and motor disabilities, while still being able to self-inject. These populations included those being treated for Rheumatoid Arthritis and Parkinson’s disease, as well as the elderly and infirm.
Once the needs of these patients have been analyzed and defined, E3D began the process of developing a mechanical design which meets their needs, while also ensuring the design addressed required characteristics of quality and reliability. This approach to device development has resulted in a unique design for an easy-to-use self-injection device platform which also meets Elcam’s stringent quality requirements.
The relatively small amount of plastic used in production especially in the reusable auto-Injectors line represents E3D’s commitment to the environment… Elcam offers a solution that can customize and incorporate standard glass or plastic PFS from a range of manufacturers and minimizes the footprint for manufacture and delivery, with a correspondingly low storage and waste volume at the patient’s home.
In summary, when the coronavirus pandemic is behind us, a greater emphasis will be placed on three existing trends that drive drug delivery system development, in addition to increasing the commercial value (and lifecycle) of drug products. Those trends are improved patient compliance and quality of care, growing awareness of production footprint and associated costs, and increased use of self-administered drug therapy which represents a step towards precision medicine.