Innovation
The Science Behind PKA
Approximately 16 billion injections are administered every year. This number is expected to increase with the rise of chronic diseases, robust vaccination programs, and an ageing demographic. COVID-19 will substantially increase injection statistics—more than 10 billion vaccine doses were pre-ordered for 2021.
*Above statistics from World Health Organization
While drug research has evolved continuously over the last 170 years, injectable drug delivery methods have not. A market exists for an alternative to the dominant injection device – the syringe.
A traditional syringe injection can be unpleasant and painful for humans and animals alike. This is because most injections are given subcutaneously or intramuscularly, reaching deep enough into the skin to hit fatty tissues where there are nerves, which causes pain.
Conventional methods of injecting drugs go through the skin deep into the subcutaneous tissue and interfere with the nerve endings. This causes pain and results in less direct dispersal of the drug.
The PKA SoftTouch Micro- Needle is the only patented device that injects the drug directly into the skin layers avoiding the nerve endings and the sensation of pain.
The big difference with a shallow injection is that the skin, which is the largest organ in the body, allows rapid dispersal of the drug into the bloodstream.
The PKA SoftTouch Micro-Needle is a pain-free delivery system. Shallow delivery by a 1.5mm Micro-Needle projection in the skin allows the drug to enter into the bloodstream via the interstitial fluid. This fluid circulates through the body like rivers and disperses the medication rapidly, faster than with any traditional needle injection. By targeting the epidermal layer of the skin, we have proven that a shallow delivery process enhances the uptake, bioavailability and efficacy of drugs.
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Would you prefer a painless inoculation when get your annual flu shot or when you take your child for routine immunizations? Are you one of 422 million people worldwide that have diabetes and are required to self-inject insulin daily?
*Above statistics from World Health Organization
Market demand exists for an alternative to painful and unpleasant injections which are given subcutaneously or intramuscularly, piercing deep into the skin to hit nerves and cause pain. Approximately 27 per cent of the population experience Trypanophobia (needle-phobia); fear of procedures involving injections or needles and consequently, avoid medical treatment. This was taken into consideration when designing our technology and we ensured our device doesn’t look or feel like a needle. In fact, the needle is hidden both before and after the injection to help users overcome their fear.
Did you know that there are 11 litres of interstitial fluid and 5 litres of blood in the human body? The interstitial fluid is a thin layer of fluid that flows like rivers just beneath the skin — the largest organ of the body. Our research has proved that the PKA Micro-Needle’s shallow drug delivery process into the dermal layer enhances the uptake, bioavailability, and efficacy of the drug. Clinical data shows that the drug injected from our Micro-Needle reaches the bloodstream twice as fast as a subcutaneous injection.
A syringe injection requires a health worker to accurately draw the drug from a vial, carefully locate the deltoid muscle and dispose of the used syringe in a sharps disposal container. This takes precision and time. Alternatively, our device is compact, inexpensive, disposable, user-friendly, pain-free, and comes pre-loaded with a pre-measured dose.