SYREEN

Little green syringe

syreen

Syreen is a novel pre-filled syringe developped at Cambridge Consultants. Using the Cradle2Cradle design approach, Syreen is a highly effective, safe, and easy-to-use drug delivery device for self administration use, designed to ease the resource intensity and material wastage associated with traditional syringe development and manufacture.

Instead of glass, Syreen syringes are made with COP (cyclic olefin polymer) plastic, which has enables to shed the need for secondary packaging altogether, a first in the this medical device arena. The makeup of the Syreen allows syringes to clip together, nesting in a pack while the COP design doubles as the outer shell of the packaging itself. The Syreen therefore eliminates the need for wasteful fillers such as cardboard and styrofoam, reducing the packaging weight by 30 percent and volume by 50 percent from today’s standard packaging. Syreen therefore reduces shipping, storage and related CO2 emissions by 50%, also shedding 40% off a typical supply chain. The United States alone produces 6,600 tons of medical waste per day, equalling well over two million tons per year—approximately 85 percent of which goes to landfills throughout the country. This marriage of economy and ecology shows that medical device companies will likely see competitive benefits by taking sustainability seriously.
To use Syreen, simply unclip the prefilled syringe and put it against the desired area on the skin. After delivery, with a simple snap, the user ejects the needle into the sharps bin and allows to eventually recycles the plastic capsule. Patient and healthcare provider safety is also increased due to two further features of the design. Firstly, the COP plastic syringe features a curved surface over the needle that, while keeping the syringe from rolling and reducing needle-stick accidents, also ensures overall stability and depth control during injection .Firstly, the COP plastic syringe is not curved like typical glass syringes, so it won’t roll when placed on a surface, and because it also incorporates its own cap it makes it more difficult to accidentally incur a needle stick injury. Secondly, the design insures that, with separated plunger and stopper, it is impossible to take in blood or other contaminants, reducing the risk of cross infection and allowing 96% recyclability (should the FDA decide to clarify this point).

Source : Cambridge Consultants

 

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Syreen was nominated as a Finalist in the 2010 IDEA Awards in the Eco-design category (not many medical products make it in there…)

As a follow-up and taking into consideration the collosal pre-existing capital investment for filling line, I devised Syreen II, which does have a little higher footprint, but retains all usability features and can be fitted as an add-on to current filling lines. Syreen II also doesn’t need COP, and can be manufactured in PC or PP (which already have recycling processes available)

syreenII