Miniaturized osmotic pump for oromucosal drug delivery with external readout station.

ABSTRACT

We report on a miniaturized, exchangeable drug delivery cartridge for Parkinson's Disease which is integrated in a partial removable prosthesis. An osmotic pumping principle uses saliva to release constantly a separately stored drug to the buccal mucosa, thus avoiding first pass metabolism and drug plasma level fluctuations. Therapeutic relevant information and fill level of the cartridge can be determined before and after usage with an external readout station. The selected material combinations of the cartridge fulfill both, functional and regulatory aspects as well as requirements for assembly and packaging, e.g. thermal fusion bonding, solvent bonding and capillary stop bonding. By using the cartridge, highly precise release rates over 97% of its storage capacity with a rate deviation of only 1.1% can be achieved.