Enhancing the injectability of high concentration drugs via core annular flows

High concentration drug formulations that can be delivered via subcutaneous injections offer tremendous benefits to global health, but their high viscosity prevents injectability through medical needles. Current approaches to solve this problem face several challenges ranging from cross contamination and high cost to needle clogging and protein inactivation. Here we report a simple method to enhance formulation injectability through a core annular flow that lubricates viscous transport through a needle. We study the importance of different flow regimes and density based eccentricity in dictating lubrication in the needle. Finally, we quantify the maximum pressure reduction that can be achieved with such a lubricating core annular flow.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2019

Author dc:creator

• Jayaprakash, Vishnu.

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Kripa K. Varanasi.

• Mechanical Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• MIT theses may be protected by copyright. Please reuse MIT thesis content according to the MIT Libraries Permissions Policy, which is available through the URL provided.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/128338

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/128338