Compact positive displacement pump for wearable drug delivery device

Inventors

CARDINALI, Steven

Assignees

Insulet Corp

Abstract

Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to techniques, processes, devices or systems for pump devices. In one approach, a wearable drug delivery device may include a reservoir configured to store a liquid drug, the reservoir including a housing including an outer wall defining an interior chamber, a sealing member, and a slit through the housing, wherein the sealing member is configured to seal the slit. The wearable drug delivery device may further include a delivery pump device including a drive mechanism coupled to the reservoir for driving the liquid drug out of the reservoir, the drive mechanism including a piston head disposed within the interior chamber of the housing, and a lead screw coupled to a drive nut, wherein the drive nut comprises a blade adjacent the piston head, and wherein the blade is positionable through the slit of the housing.

Core Innovation

The wearable drug delivery device includes a reservoir configured to store a liquid drug. The reservoir comprises a housing with an outer wall defining an interior chamber, and a sealing member that seals a slit through at least a portion of the housing. The device also includes a delivery pump device coupled to the reservoir for driving the liquid drug out of the reservoir, with the drive mechanism comprising a piston head disposed within the interior chamber and a lead screw coupled to a drive nut.

The drive nut comprises a blade adjacent the piston head, where the blade is within the slit of the housing and is configured to move within the slit to cut the sealing member. In the described configurations, an entirety of the slit and an entirety of the blade are contained within the reservoir. In further described embodiments, the reservoir housing includes a core shaft, the sealing member is formed along an exterior surface of the core shaft, and the slit is formed through the core shaft.

The drive mechanism further includes a lead screw having external threading engaged with corresponding internal threading of the drive nut, where rotation of the lead screw causes the blade to move axially along the lead screw. Piston head sealing rings provide liquid-tight sealing with the housing/core shaft/sealing member as described. The resulting arrangement is described as providing improved size/space efficiency relative to prior plunger-length approaches, and the device is described as usable in a closed-loop artificial pancreas system including an analyte sensor and needle/cannula deployment.

Claims Coverage

The partial content provides three independent claims. Each independent claim centers on a reservoir with a sealing-member-sealed slit inside the reservoir and a piston/lead-screw/drive-nut mechanism whose blade cuts the sealing member within the slit to expel a liquid drug.

Across the independent claims, the inventive coverage is directed to a wearable drug delivery reservoir with a sealing-member-sealed slit in which a drive-nut blade is positioned within the slit and contained inside the reservoir to cut the sealing member, combined with a piston head drive mechanism using a lead screw and drive nut such that lead-screw rotation produces axially moving blade/driven piston action to force a liquid drug out.

Stated Advantages

Documented Applications