UCT designs affordable auto-injector

UCT has developed a new adrenaline auto-injector.

The ZibiPen, a reloadable adrenaline auto-injector, will have massive implications for end users with vials of adrenaline available for a fraction of the cost.

“As we move towards a more Westernised diet, the rates of allergies and anaphylaxis increase,” Gokul Nair, who invented the technology alongside associate professor Sudesh Sivarasu and associate professor Mike Levin.

Adrenaline auto-injectors on the market can be expensive, expire within 18 months, and can only be used once.

Current devices in the market are unintuitive and are based on the size of an average male, which could pose problems for children, women and the obese.

The ZibiPen can be customised for any patient, with needle length and dose calculated by clinicians and set by pharmacists.

One of the main challenges engineers said was developing a device that could exert a force of around 200 newtons and weights about 20kg in a small device.

Sivarasu, head of the Medical Devices Lab said: “Here you have a technology which can be very easily made accessible to the middle- and low-income group as well.

“But it is not made so because of business reasons and also because the (current) technology doesn’t support it.”

The ZibiPen was recently recognised in the Emerging Medical Innovation Competition at the Design of Medical Devices Conference, where it placed second and was awarded a full technical and market evaluation by the Medical Industry Leadership Institute valued at R180 000. – Staff Reporter