Drug Delivery Device

Abstract

The present specification relates to a drug delivery device including a housing adapted to receive a primary container with a piston, a plunger slidably disposed in the housing and adapted to drive the piston for delivering a medicament, a drive spring pre-loaded between the housing and the plunger so as to urge the plunger in a distal direction, an audible and/or tactile indicator, and a trigger mechanism arranged between the indicator and the plunger. The trigger mechanism is configured to support the indicator in an initial state of the device and during delivery of the medicament and to couple with the plunger to activate the audible and/or tactile indicator at or near an end of delivery.

1 .- 16 . (canceled) 
     
     
         17 . A drug delivery device comprising:
 a housing adapted to receive a container comprising a piston and containing a dose of a drug;   an audible and/or tactile indicator configured to provide an indication to a user at or near an end of a delivery of the drug;   a plunger selected from a group of plungers having different lengths, each plunger of the group of plungers configured to he slidahly disposed in the housing and adapted to drive the piston for delivering the drug; and   a trigger mechanism arranged between the audible and/or tactile indicator and the plunger, the trigger mechanism configured to couple with any plunger of the group of plungers to activate the audible and/or tactile indicator.   
     
     
         18 . The drug delivery device according to  claim 17 , wherein the dose of the drug is a first dose that is different from a second dose deliverable by a second drug delivery device comprising a plunger selected from the group of plungers having a different plunger length compared to the length of the plunger of the drug deliver device 
     
     
         19 . The drug deliver device according to  claim 17 , further comprising a drive spring preloaded between the housing and the plunger to urge the plunger in a distal direction. 
     
     
         20 . The drug deliver device according to  claim 19 , wherein the trigger mechanism is configured (i) to support the audible and/or tactile indicator in an initial state of the diug delivery device and during the delivery of the drug, and (ii) to couple with any plunger of the group of plungers to activate the audible and/or tactile indicator at or near the end of the delivery of the drug. 
     
     
         21 . The drug delivery device according to  claim 17 , wherein upon activating of the audible and/or tactile indicator, the audible and/or tactile indicator disengages from a support of the trigger mechanism. 
     
     
         22 . The drug delivery device according to  claim 17 , wherein the trigger mechanism comprises at least one structure resiliently abutting the plunger. 
     
     
         23 . The drug delivery device according to  claim 22 , wherein the at least one structure protrudes from an indicator holder towards the plunger. 
     
     
         24 . The drug delivery device according to  claim 22 , wherein the at least one structure protrudes from the housing towards the plunger. 
     
     
         25 . The drug delivery device according to  claim 22 , wherein the at least one structure comprises an inclined surface. 
     
     
         26 . The drug delivery device according to  claim 22 , wherein the at least one structure comprises a proximal inclined end and a distal stepped edge. 
     
     
         27 . The drug delivery device according to  claim 22 , wherein the at least one structure comprises at least one fin or rib. 
     
     
         28 . The drug delivery device according to  claim 22 , wherein each plunger of the group of plungers comprises at least one cut-out adapted to receive the at least one structure at or near the end of the delivery of the drug. 
     
     
         29 . The drug delivery device according to  claim 28 , wherein the at least one cut-out comprises at least one of a lateral inclined edge or a distal stepped edge. 
     
     
         30 . The drug delivery device according to  claim 17 , wherein the trigger mechanism comprises two adjacent structures and each plunger of the group of plungers comprises two correspondingly adjacent cut-outs adapted to receive the two adjacent structures. 
     
     
         31 . The drug delivery device according to  claim 17 , further comprising a needle sleeve telescopically coupled to the housing. 
     
     
         32 . The drug delivery device according to  claim 17 , wherein the drug delivery device is an auto-injector or pen-injector. 
     
     
         33 . The drug delivery device according to  claim 17 , further comprising the container containing the dose of the drug, wherein the container is disposed in the housing. 
     
     
         34 . A drug delivery device set comprising:
 a housing adapted to receive a container comprising a piston and containing a first dose of a drug or a second dose of the drug;   a first plunger having a first length, the first plunger configured to be slidably disposed in the housing and adapted to drive the piston for delivering the first dose of the drug;   a second plunger having a second length, the second plunger configured to be slidably disposed in the housing and adapted to drive the piston for delivering the second dose of the drug;   an audible and/or tactile indicator configured to provide an indication to a user at or near an end of delivery of the drug; and   a trigger mechanism configured to be (i) arranged between the audible and/or tactile indicator and the first plunger when the first plunger is slidably disposed in the housing and (ii) arranged between the audible and/or tactile indicator and the second plunger when the second plunger is slidably disposed in the housing,   wherein the trigger mechanism is configured to (i) couple with the first plunger to activate the audible and/or tactile indicator at or near an end of delivery of the first dose of the drug and (ii) couple with the second plunger to activate the audible and/or tactile indicator at or near an end of delivery of the second dose of the drug.   
     
     
         35 . The drug delivery device set according to  claim 34 , wherein the container is disposed in the drug delivery device 
     
     
         36 . The drug delivery device set according to  claim 34 , wherein the trigger mechanism comprises at least one structure configured to (i) resiliently abut the first plunger when the first plunger is slidably disposed in the housing and (ii) resiliently abut the second plunger when the second plunger is slidably disposed in the housing, and the first plunger and the second plunger each comprise at least one cut-out adapted to receive the at least one structure at or near the end of delivery of the drug. 
     
     
         37 . The drug delivery device according to  claim 34 , further comprising the container containing the first dose of the drug or the second dose of the drug, wherein the container is disposed in the housing. 
     
     
         38 . A method of assembling a drug delivery device, the method comprising:
 disposing a container in a housing of the drug deliver device, the container containing a dose of a drug;   disposing a plunger selected from a group of plungers having different lengths in the housing, each plunger of the group of plungers comprising at least one cut-out adapted to receive at least one structure at or near an end of a delivery of the drug; and   disposing a trigger mechanism in the drug deliver device, the trigger mechanism configured to generate, by an audible and/or tactile indicator of the drug delivery device, an audible and/or tactile indication for any plunger of the group of plungers.   
     
     
         39 . A method of delivering a drug from a drug delivery device, the method comprising:
 moving a plunger of the drug delivery device relative to a housing of the drug delivery device to (i) deliver a dose of the drug from a container of the drug delivery device and (ii) generate, by an audible and/or tactile indicator of the drug deliver device, an audible and/or tactile indication at or near an end of the delivery of the dose of the drug,   wherein the plunger is selected from a group of plungers having different lengths, and each plunger of the group of plungers is configured to be slidably disposed in the housing and sized such that the audible and/or tactile indication is generated at or near the end of the delivery of the dose of the drug for any plunger of the group of plungers.   
     
     
         40 . The method according to  claim 39 , comprising receiving at least one structure into at least one cut-out of the plunger at or near the end of the delivery of the drug to generate the audible and/or tactile indication. 
     
     
         41 . The method according to  claim 39 , wherein the audible and/or tactile indication provides an indication to a user that the dose of the drug was delivered. 
     
     
         42 . The method according to  claim 39 , comprising depressing a needle sleeve telescopically coupled to the housing against an injection site to cause the moving of the plunger relative to the housing to (i) deliver the dose of the drug and (ii) generate the audible and/or tactile indication. 
     
     
         43 . The method according to  claim 39 , comprising firing or activating the audible and/or tactile indicator to generate the audible and/or tactile indication. 
     
     
         44 . The method according to  claim 39 , comprising releasing the audible and/or tactile indicator to generate the audible and/or tactile indication