LS Instruments

Understanding Injectability in Liquid Drugs

Injectability refers to the ease with which a drug solution can be administered through a syringe. For protein solutions and other liquid drugs, optimal injectability is crucial to ensure patient comfort, minimize pain, and achieve precise dosing. Factors influencing injectability include viscosity, syringeability, and the force required to push the solution through a needle.

Challenges of Viscometry

Accurate and precise viscosity measurement has always been challenging. Conventional viscometry methods typically require more than one hundred microliters of sample volume, which is impractical when only scarce amounts of sample are available, especially at high biopharmaceutical concentrations.

Flow-based measurement techniques, such as capillary viscometry, can lead to complications like shear-thinning, shear-thickening, and shear-induced aggregation in biopharmaceuticals.

Benefits of Zero Shear Viscosity Analysis using Advanced DLS Microviscometry

The viscosity is a key parameter for proper syringeability and injectability assessment but is often hard to assess reliably. At the same time, injectables are typically formulated at high concentrations resulting in high viscosities while the desired working volumes are in the order of microliters.

The DLS Microviscosimetry offered by LS Instruments requires only 4 µl of sample volume, significantly less than the over 100 µl needed by traditional commercial microviscometry devices. This innovation not only conserves valuable samples but also enhances measurement reliability.

Our advanced DLS technology offers several key advantages for injectability optimization:

• Precise Viscosity Measurement: Achieve accurate and reliable zero shear viscosity measurements for a wide range of formulations.
• Non-Invasive Analysis: Perform viscosity characterization without altering or damaging sensitive protein solutions and liquid drugs (shear-induced aggregation).
• Rapid and Efficient: Obtain fast results, enabling quicker optimization and development cycles.

Applications in Life Sciences Liquid Drugs

Our advanced DLS zero shear viscosity analysis is essential for various applications in the life sciences, including:

• Biopharmaceuticals: Optimize the injectability of monoclonal antibodies, vaccines, and other biologics.
• Gene Therapy: Ensure smooth delivery of nucleic acid-based therapies.
• Parenteral Nutrition: Enhance the administration of intravenous nutrition solutions.
• Cosmeceuticals: Improve the delivery of injectable cosmetic treatments.