Q&A: The thinking behind BD's new Effivax glass prefillable syringe

After launching its new glass prefillable syringe for vaccines, BD explained more to Med-Tech Innovation about the new Effivax product.

Tell us about the new glass prefillable syringe that BD has launched?

The new BD Effivax Glass Prefillable Syringe has been designed in collaboration with leading pharmaceutical companies to meet the complex and evolving needs of vaccine manufacturing. This next-generation glass prefillable syringe (PFS) sets a new standard in performance for vaccine PFS with new and tightened specifications for processability, cosmetics, contamination, and integrity.

What can you tell us about the use of glass in the syringe?

The glass syringe is the standard in almost all therapeutics areas, with some exceptions. Prefillable glass syringes are used by the pharmaceutical industry to provide drugs and vaccines in ready-to-administer formats for faster administration and reduced risk of contamination or medication error. Glass is bringing lots of advantages from technical standpoint, limiting drug interactions, providing full transparency to enable visual inspection, high performance regarding permeability. The only main drawback of glass is the breakage, but some solutions can help strengthening the glass.

Can you give us an insight as to why you chose glass over other materials – and indeed the properties it has that alternatives don’t have?

The use of glass in syringe is enabling pharma companies to switch easily from glass vial to glass syringe, thus limiting issues with drug interaction. Glass is addressing main pharma challenges: drug interaction, gas permeability performance, operational and cost efficiency, secure of supply with important installed capacity. Most of the drugs can be addressed with glass syringes, with the appropriate combination of stopper and lubricant. Glass is as well answering new requirements regarding deep cold storage for mRNA vaccines for examples, up to -75°C as per our study on container closure integrity.

How does it help combat the challenges that manufacturers in medtech and pharma face today?

Effivax is answering pharma increased requirements in container reliability, and integrity. Effivax is addressing increased expectations in cosmetic defects, contamination and bringing cost efficiency through TCO optimisation. 

Anything else that you would like to add? 

BD is offering a unique value proposition to pharmaceutical companies. With over 60 years of experience in Drug Delivery Systems, BD is known as a trusted partner on drug delivery systems, with a strong expertise in Elastomers and drug-device combination product. BD is offering glass barrels as well as ready to use plunger stoppers for prefillable syringes.