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Patent for a Simplified Needle-less Injector Comparable to a Conventional Syringe Awarded to PenJet® Corporation

        Santa Monica, CA, Sept. 18, 2002 -- A U.S. Patent for a simplified, gas-powered, needle-less injector with close to as few parts as a conventional disposable syringe has been granted to PenJet® Corporation, a Santa Monica based medical device company. The injector, called the PenJet®, when produced in large quantities, will cost about a dollar.
        The PenJet®, made of high impact plastic, is half the size of a conventional fountain pen and can painlessly and noiselessly inject a wide range of medication without a needle. It is designed to be prepackaged and shipped with a single dose of medication stored in the device, ready to deploy.
        The latest U.S. Patent (No. 6,447,475) is one of many patents awarded to PenJet® Corporation. It covers PenJet’s® unique gas-charged metal canister with inline barrel valve that reduces the number of parts, simplifies assembly and assures a consistent injection. In addition, the patent depicts its distinctive design that has integral finger sets, giving it both a familiar syringe-like appearance and functionality.
        According to Thomas Castellano, PenJet’s chief design engineer and company CEO, “Along with safe and painless needle-less delivery, focus group research clearly demonstrated that two other essential factors must be present to make a jet injector desirable to medical practitioners and care givers. The first is ease and familiarity of use, and the second is low cost, comparable to pre-filled syringes.”
        “With our finger sets, caregivers can hold a PenJet® and administer a needle-less injection in much the same way as with a conventional syringe,” Mr. Castellano said. “This reduces the need for special learning as well as the risk of errors from using an unfamiliar product with new technologies.”
        "Most important,” Mr. Castellano went on to say, “is keeping costs down so that safe needle-less injections are well within the scope of health care budgets. Through innovative design, we are able to reduce the parts necessary for a needle-less injector and use high speed fully automated machines to perform the assembly and aseptic filling of PenJets®, making it an inexpensive, safe alternative to commercial pre-filled syringes using conventional needles.”
        “The new patent recognizes these two major PenJet® breakthroughs, as well as several other innovations covered,” Mr. Castellano concluded. Compared to prior jet injectors, which are expensive, noisy, and awkward to fill and inject with, the small PenJet® is easy to store, carry and use. PenJets® are safe and simple enough for most people to instantly administer an injection to themselves or others without any prior experience.
        To administer a needle-less injection with a PenJet®, a protective cap and safety ring that avoids accidental triggering is removed, the nozzle is placed against a suitable injection site, such as the upper arm, thigh or stomach, and the PenJet® administers the injection when gently pressed like a conventional syringe. The patient experiences minimal sensation and no noise when the injection is given. After use, the PenJet® can be safely discarded in any trash receptacle, or recycled into non medical devices, since it has no needle and has injected all the medication or vaccine it contained.
        PenJets® are applicable for usages ranging from mass inoculations of entire populations for diseases such as influenza and smallpox, to home administration of pharmaceuticals by patients or their caregivers. It should prove useful in underdeveloped nations where vaccines must be distributed and safely administered to people who have little or no access to health care professionals.
        A wide range of subcutaneous, intradermal and some intramuscular injections can be administered with PenJet®. In addition to liquid medications and vaccines, PenJet® can store, mix and administer needle-less injections of freeze-dried (lyophilized) drugs. These are the latest, highly potent, biotechnologically derived proteins that require lyophilization to maintain shelf life.
        PenJet® Corporation is a private company specializing in drug delivery devices. It maintains a considerable array of patents in support of its needle-less injection technology, and additional U.S. and Foreign patents are pending for the company's family of needle-less injectors, peripheral components, aseptic filling machines and pre-fill techniques. Its website is www.penjet.com.


Contact: Bob Schumacher, Phone: 310-201-0800, Email: bob@penjet.com