Apparatus and methods for use in administering medicaments by direct medicament contact to mucosal tissues
First Claim
1. An apparatus for use in transmucosal delivery of a drug to a patient through the mucosal tissues of the mouth comprising:
- a housing resistant to deformation defining a medicament chamber therein, said chamber having a base which defines at least one opening to said medicament chamber;
a quantity of medicament medium located within the medicament chamber, said medicament medium comprising a pharmaceutically effective dose of medicament;
means for temporarily positioning the housing against a mucosal membrane within the mouth, such that the opening to said medicament chamber is positioned over the mucosal membrane and such that the medicament medium within the medicament chamber is capable of contact with the mucosal membrane; and
means for adjusting the size of the opening to the medicament chamber in order to adjust the exposure of medicament medium within the medicament chamber to the mucosal membrane, the means for adjusting the size of the opening to the medicament chamber comprises;
a control member having a size and a shape similar to the medicament chamber base and having at least one opening corresponding to the opening of the medicament chamber base, said control member being positioned adjacent the medicament chamber base such that the respective openings of the control member and medicament chamber base are capable of movement with respect to each other; and
means for moving the control member relative to the medicament chamber base such that the size of the at least one opening to the medicament chamber may be modified by sliding the control member relative to the housing base in order to adjust the exposure of medicament medium within the medicament chamber to the mucosal membrane.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Apparatus and methods for the dose-to-effect transmucosal administration of medicaments are disclosed. The present invention relates to such apparatus and methods which are useful in administering medicaments in a dose-to-effect manner such that sufficient drug is administered to produce precisely a desired effect. The invention also relates to an apparatus capable of placement directly on the patient'"'"'s buccal mucosa having the capability of adjusting the drug surface area in direct contact with the mucosal tissue thereby enabling the proper amount of therapeutic agent or drug to be administered while accounting for individual needs and susceptibilities of the drug.
Through the use of selected permeation enhancers, the present invention enables lipophilic and nonlipophilic medicaments, which are not suitable for oral administration, to be rapidly administered noninvasively. Employing the present invention the drug may be introduced into the patient'"'"'s bloodstream almost as fast as through injection, and much faster than using the oral administration route, while avoiding the negative aspects of both of these methods.
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Citations
36 Claims
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1. An apparatus for use in transmucosal delivery of a drug to a patient through the mucosal tissues of the mouth comprising:
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a housing resistant to deformation defining a medicament chamber therein, said chamber having a base which defines at least one opening to said medicament chamber; a quantity of medicament medium located within the medicament chamber, said medicament medium comprising a pharmaceutically effective dose of medicament; means for temporarily positioning the housing against a mucosal membrane within the mouth, such that the opening to said medicament chamber is positioned over the mucosal membrane and such that the medicament medium within the medicament chamber is capable of contact with the mucosal membrane; and means for adjusting the size of the opening to the medicament chamber in order to adjust the exposure of medicament medium within the medicament chamber to the mucosal membrane, the means for adjusting the size of the opening to the medicament chamber comprises; a control member having a size and a shape similar to the medicament chamber base and having at least one opening corresponding to the opening of the medicament chamber base, said control member being positioned adjacent the medicament chamber base such that the respective openings of the control member and medicament chamber base are capable of movement with respect to each other; and means for moving the control member relative to the medicament chamber base such that the size of the at least one opening to the medicament chamber may be modified by sliding the control member relative to the housing base in order to adjust the exposure of medicament medium within the medicament chamber to the mucosal membrane.
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2. An apparatus for use in transmucosal delivery of a drug to a patient through the mucosal tissues of the mouth comprising:
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a housing resistant to deformation defining a medicament chamber therein, said chamber having a base which defines at least one opening to aid medicament chamber; a quantity of medicament medium located within the medicament chamber, said medicament medium comprising a pharmaceutically effective dose of medicament; means for temporarily positioning the housing against a mucosal membrane within the mouth, such that the opening to said medicament chamber is positioned over the mucosal membrane and such that the medicament medium within the medicament chamber is positioned adjacent the mucosal membrane; a substantially flat control member having a size and a shape similar to the medicament chamber base and having at least one opening corresponding to the opening of the medicament chamber base, said control member being positioned adjacent the medicament chamber base such that the respective openings of the control member and medicament chamber base are capable of movement with respect to each other; and means for moving the control ember relative to the medicament chamber base such that the size of the at least one opening to the medicament chamber may be modified by sliding the control member relative to the housing base in order to adjust the exposure of medicament medium within the medicament chamber to the mucosal membrane in the range from zero area to the maximum area provided by the opening to the medicament chamber. - View Dependent Claims (3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36)
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Specification