The present invention relates to a method and a device for injecting humans and animals with a pharmaceutical pre¬ paration.

Both this method and this device are generally known. Use is made herein of a syringe which is filled with the pharmaceutical preparation in liquid form, whereafter by means of a piston received in the syringe the liquid prepa¬ ration is injected into the body through a needle pushed through the skin. This method is used both with humans and with animals.

This method is however beset with the danger that the needle, after being inserted into the body, is contaminated by micro-organisms or viruses present in that body which pass onto the needle of the syringe. When the same needle is used for injecting a following body there is therefore the danger of the following body being contaminated.

While in the case of human applications it is usual to use syringes and needles for once-only use, this does result in cost increases and excessive environmental impact, par- ticularly in the case of prophylactic inoculation on a large scale. This is the case for both human and veterinary ap¬ plications.

Known from US-A-4 771 757 is a method wherein the pre¬ paration is received in a rigid carrier and wherein the carrier is carried through the skin into the body by means of gas pressure.

In this method only the carrier with the pharmaceutical preparation penetrates into the body for injecting so that no instruments or parts thereof penetrate into and are remo- ved from the body for injecting so that the resulting risk of infection is reduced.

This method moreover results in a great speed, which is particularly important when a large number of humans or animals must be injected.

This known method has the drawback that it is only suitable for injecting animals from a distance. This leads to dangerous situations, since the kinetic energy of a "fired" carrier is so great that it can easily cause serious injury.

Another drawback lies in the fact that the accuracy of the location at which the carrier enters the body is low, so that there is a great chance of the carrier entering the body at a less suitable position. Moreover, the kinetic energy of the carrier when it enters the body is strongly dependent on the distance between body and device. At a great distance there is indeed no longer any guarantee that the position of the carrier is still axial when it enters the body; the risk of injury is therefore great. The invention therefore provides a method which is characterized in that during carrying of a rigid carrier into the body by means of gas pressure the device with which the carrier is carried into the body is held against the body. Use is made herein of a device which is provided with a chamber in which a carrier containing the pharmaceutical preparation can be placed, a barrel connecting onto this chamber and means for carrying the carrier by means of gas pressure through the barrel into the body for injecting, characterized by means for blocking the use of the device when it is not pressed against a body.

It is noted here that it is known to introduce phar¬ maceutical preparations in the form of a carrier into the body, wherein in general these pharmaceutical preparations release their pharmaceutically active substance slowly. In this known method these carriers are arranged surgically in the body, which of course entails high costs. These surgi¬ cally arranged carriers often leave behind a remnant which must be removed, once again surgically, or which result in the occurrence of abscesses or infections.

The present invention will be elucidated hereinbelow with reference to the annexed figures, in which:

fig. 1 shows a partly broken away perspective view of a device according to the invention; fig. 2 shows a partly broken away detail view of the device depicted in fig. 1; fig. 3 is a detail view broken away in another manner of the device depicted in fig. l; and fig. 4 is a perspective view of a carrier for use in the method according to the invention.

The device depicted in fig. 1 is formed by a barrel 1 in which a chamber 2 is arranged. Situated under chamber 2 is magazine 3 in which a spring 4 is arranged for urging carriers 5 toward the chamber 2. It is also possible to feed the carriers on a belt or on a chain in the manner of a machine gun. Another possibility is formed by the use of an annular magazine in which the carriers are arranged. The side of chamber 2 remote from the barrel 1 is connected by means of a channel 6 to a pressure vessel 7. A closing valve 8 is arranged in channel 6. For handling of the thus formed release device 9 a first hand-grip 10 is fixed to the barrel 1 and a second hand-grip 11 to the channel 6. The closing valve 8 is further connected to a trigger 12. The hand-grips are preferably integrated into the housing.

As a result of the fact that the device is pressed with the barrel against the body for injecting, the required kinetic energy of the carrier is small so that the device with a pressure vessel 7 incorporated therein can inject a large number of carriers.

In order to charge the vessel 7 it is provided with a connection 13 in which can be arranged a reducing valve 14 in order to make adjustable the pressure with which the gases reach chamber 2 and to enable maintaining of this pressure at the adjusted value.

Further arranged on the front side of the barrel 1 is a sleeve 19 which is slidable in axial direction on the barrel 2. Sleeve 19 is connected by means of a rod 20 to the clos¬ ing valve 8. This is a safety device; it is only possible to operate the trigger 12 when the sleeve 19 is pressed rear-

ward in relation to the barrel 1, so that only when sleeve 19 has been shifted through contact with a body for injec¬ ting is it possible to pull the trigger 12 and cause a car¬ rier 5 to move through barrel 1 into the body for injecting. The construction is shown in more detail in fig. 2. Sleeve 19 is provided with an internal edge 21 with which guiding on the barrel 1 takes place. Further, a ring 22 is screwed on the rear end of sleeve 19, wherein ring 22 like¬ wise provides guiding on the barrel. To prevent the sleeve 19 being removed from the barrel pins 23 are arranged on the barrel. Arranged between pins 23 and ring 21 is a coil sp¬ ring 24 which ensures that sleeve 19 is retained in its extreme position. Only when the end of barrel 1 is pressed onto the skin of a body for injecting is the sleeve 19 moved rearward counter to the spring action of spring 24 so that the rod 20 is moved to the rear and the trigger 12 can be pulled.

For this purpose a pressure vessel in the form of an aerosol 26 is connected to the barrel 1 by means of a fas- tening element in the form of a belt 25. Further connected to sleeve 19 is a bracket 27 which rests against the head 28 of the aerosol 26.

Thus is created a mechanism wherein, when the sleeve is pressed in by the body for injecting, the aerosol is activa- ted and a portion of the contents of aerosol 26 is atomized inside sleeve 19. For this purpose the head 28 of the aero¬ sol is connected by means of a flexible hose 29 to the in¬ ternal edge 21 of the sleeve, in which an opening 30 is arranged through which the hose 29 extends. The contents of the aerosol are formed by a liquid or a gas which has a disinfecting or marking action. In preference both proper¬ ties are incorporated in the same liquid, for instance tinc¬ ture of iodine, brilliant green or mercurochrome. It is of course possible to employ other liquids, for instance a mixture of a highly coloured liquid for marking and a liquid with a disinfecting action.

It will be apparent that there are other options for atomizing liquid, for instance a vessel which is pumped up at each stroke of the sleeve relative to the barrel. It is also possible to use the kinetic energy of the carrier to atomize the liquid, for instance by means of the suction occurring after passage of the carrier.

It is of course likewise possible, when the situation lends itself thereto, to make use of either a disinfecting liquid or a marking liquid. It will be apparent that other embodiments of mecha¬ nisms for safety and spraying of marking and/or disinfecting liquid are possible; the above mentioned construction is only one embodiment.

Finally, fig. 4 shows an embodiment of a carrier accor- ding to the present invention. The carrier designated in its entirety by 5 is formed by a substantially cylindrical body 30 which is provided on one side with a conical tip 31. The other side of the cylindrical body 30 is flattened. It will be apparent that this shape is suitable for firing as car- rier into a body by means of the device depicted in fig. 1, wherein penetration through the skin is facilitated by the conical shape.

It is also possible to apply other carrier shapes. Such a carrier can be manufactured entirely of a pharmaceutically active substance, although it is also possible that the quantity of pharmaceutically active substance is too small to produce such a carrier. In such a situation the carrier is manufactured from a mixture of pharmaceutically active substance and an additive material, or only an additive material with recesses for the pharmaceutically active sub¬ stance. The additive is of course chosen herein such that the carrier has a sufficient mechanical strength.

It will be apparent that the dimensions of the carrier are subject to the field of application; in human applica- tions a length of several millimetres is envisaged in the first instance. In veterinary applications the dimensions depend of course on the type of animal for injecting; in the

case of pigs or cows is envisaged a carrier with a length of about 1 cm and a diameter of about 2-3 mm.

It is likewise possible to provide the carrier with a cavity 32 and to arrange the pharmaceutically active sub- stance in this cavity.

It is possible to embody the carrier as capsule or to use a sponge-like structure of robust bio-degradable mate¬ rial, in the cavities of which is arranged pharmaceutically active substance. It is also possible to embody for instance only the tip in a robust bio-degradable material.

It is otherwise possible to select the material of the carrier such that the pharmaceutically active substance is absorbed into the body immediately after injecting. It is also possible that the pharmaceutically active substance is only released slowly.

Use can be made herein of coatings applied round the active substance. It is even possible to use different units of pharmaceutically active substances with different coat- ings so that the pharmaceutically active substances are released as it were in stages after different periods of time, for instance in the case of different pharmaceutically active substances.

It is attractive to embody the carrier such that it disappears within a determined time, for instance several weeks or even within several hours. In order to achieve this the carrier must consist not only of the pharmaceutically active substance but also of rapidly bio-degradable mate¬ rial. Use is preferably made herein of starch or of mainly starch-containing substances. These are given a form-retain¬ ing shape, for instance by injection moulding.

It is of course possible to administer such a rigid carrier in other manner, for instance by means of an opera¬ tion of other usual means of application. The above embodiment is suitable for successive injec¬ ting with the same pharmaceutical preparation. Other embodi¬ ments are conceivable which are suitable for successive

injecting with different preparations and which are provided for this purpose with a magazine in which only one carrier can be placed. It is even possible to use the present inven¬ tion to inject chips into animals. Herein the chips can be injected directly when they have a suitable form, but they can also be arranged in a carrier of bio-degradable mate¬ rial.