{"id":1239,"date":"2013-05-01T00:00:08","date_gmt":"2013-05-01T07:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rhochistj.org\/RhoChiPost\/?p=1239"},"modified":"2014-02-22T19:29:53","modified_gmt":"2014-02-23T02:29:53","slug":"auvi-q-newest-epinephrine-device-hit-market","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rhochistj.org\/RhoChiPost\/auvi-q-newest-epinephrine-device-hit-market\/","title":{"rendered":"AUVI-Q\u2122: The Newest Epinephrine Device to Hit the Market"},"content":{"rendered":"

By: Diana Gritsenko, Pharm D. Candidate c\/o 2015<\/span><\/p>\n

–<\/p>\n

Most of us who work in a community pharmacy setting will usually get a few scripts a month for an Epi-pen\u2122.\u00a0 An Epi-pen\u2122 is a device that autoinjects epinephrine (also known as adrenaline) into a patient who is experiencing anaphylaxis. Anaphylaxis is a severe, whole-body allergic reaction to a foreign substance or an allergen. 1<\/sub>\u00a0 This device can be life-saving as it can reverse or relieve some of the effects of anaphylaxis such as a dangerously low blood pressure, tightening of the lung muscles (which causes wheezing), and swelling of the throat and face.2<\/sup>\u00a0 However, patients can put themselves in danger because they may not be aware of how to use the Epi-pen\u2122 and may not even carry it around.\u00a0 A new autoinject device, the Auvi-Q\u2122, has entered the market and promises to provide ease-of-use and better portability for patients.3<\/sup><\/p>\n

When the Epi-pen\u2122 autoinjector is dispensed in a pharmacy, it is packaged in a box that contains two live Epi-pens and a practice dummy without a needle.\u00a0 When patients experience symptoms of anaphylaxis, they are instructed to grip the Epi-pen\u2122 with the needle end (characterized by its orange tip) pointing downwards towards the floor, remove the blue safety cap on the top side of the pen, and stab the pen firmly into the muscle of their outer thigh.\u00a0 The force of the impact retracts the orange tip and exposes the needle which delivers the epinephrine into the muscle.\u00a0 In order to ensure that all of the epinephrine has been delivered, the patient has to hold the pen in place for approximately 10 seconds.4<\/sup><\/p>\n

Patients are counseled by their doctor or pharmacist on how to use this device.\u00a0 However, in stressful emergency situations, patients commonly forget the counseling points they might have received some time ago.\u00a0 The directions are written on the back of the pen itself, but it is unlikely that a patient will read them when in a state of panic.\u00a0 Furthermore, patients are supposed to carry this device with themeverywhere in case of \u00a0an emergency.\u00a0 Unfortunately, the size of the Epi-pen\u2122 may discourage patients; the device resembles a large felt-tip marker, and as of September 2012, each one comes in its own carrying case.5<\/sup> \u00a0These are the issues that the \u00a0\u00a0Auvi-Q\u2122 was built to address.<\/p>\n

The Auvi-Q\u2122 was the brainchild of Eric and Evan Edwards. The twins grew up with serious food allergies and were instructed by their doctor to always carry the Epi-pen\u2122 around.\u00a0 As they grew older, they found this advice increasingly hard to follow.\u00a0 After college, Eric Edwards pursued a career in Pharmaceutical Sciences and Evan Edwards received a degree in Engineering; they combined their talents to create the new device which hit pharmacy shelves this year. 3<\/sup><\/p>\n

The Auvi-Q\u2122 has a similar needle length, gauge and injection force to that of Epi-pen\u2122.\u00a0 Auvi-Q\u2122 also injects 0.3mg of epinephrine and has similar peak and total epinephrine levels according to a randomized, crossover, bioavailability study.\u00a0 The advantage of the Auvi-Q\u2122 lies in its design. 5,2<\/sup><\/p>\n

This new device is about the length and the width of a credit card and as thick as a smartphone.\u00a0 It can easily slip it into a pocket or be carried around in a purse.\u00a0 In order to use the autoinjector, the patient has to first pull off the outer case of the Auvi-Q\u2122. When this case is removed, the device beeps and begins to dictate the instructions to the patient. Similar to the Epi-pen\u2122, the Auvi-Q\u2122 has a safety cap that needs to be pulled off in order to activate the needle.\u00a0 The difference lies in the color of the Auvi-Q’\u2122’ safety cap (red) and its location (over the needle).\u00a0 The patient is then instructed to place the black end of the device over his or her outer thigh and press firmly for 5 seconds (as opposed to 10 seconds for the Epi-pen\u2122).\u00a0 Auvi-Q\u2122 counts down the 5 seconds and instructs the patient to seek emergency medical attention right away. 7<\/sub><\/p>\n

The Epi-pen\u2122 and the Auvi-Q\u2122 are both used for anaphylaxis and contain 0.3mg of epinephrine.\u00a0 The difference between them lies in the mechanism of drug delivery.\u00a0 The makers of Auvi-Q\u2122 claim that their product is made from real-world experiences and feedback from the patients and their caregivers. Eric and Evan Edward believe that this gives them an advantage over the traditional Epi-pen\u2122.\u00a0 Since this device was made available in the United States on January 28, 2013, it is too soon to tell how the Auvi-Q\u2122 will fare in the market; but it is a product pharmacists should keep an eye on and appropriately counsel patients on. 8<\/sup><\/p>\n

SOURCES:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Anaphylaxis. National Institute of Health Web site. nlm.nuh.gov\/medlineplus\/ency\/article\/000844.htm. Updated May 30, 2012. Accessed March 1, 2013.<\/li>\n
  2. Epi-pen: Frequently asked questions. Epi-pen Web site.\u00a0www.epipen.com\/about-epipen\/faqs. Updated 2013<\/a>. Accessed March 1, 2013.<\/li>\n
  3. Thomas K. Brothers develop new device to halt allergy attacks. New York Times. <\/i>February 1, 2013.<\/li>\n
  4. Epi-pen: How to use Epi-pen. Epi-pen Web site.\u00a0http:\/\/www.epipen.com\/how-to-use-epipen. Updated 2013<\/a>. Accessed March 1, 2013.<\/li>\n
  5. Newly designed Epipen. Allergy UK Web site.\u00a0www.allergyuk.org\/news\/latest-news\/post\/42-newly-designed-epipen. Updated September 12<\/a>, 2012. Accessed March 1, 2013.<\/li>\n
  6. In brief: Auvi-Q- A new epinephrine auto-injector.\u00a0 The Medical Letter Online Web site. www.secure.medicalletter.org\/w1410a. Updated 2013<\/a>. Accessed March 1, 2013.<\/li>\n
  7. About Auvi-Q. Auvi-Q Website.\u00a0www.auvi-q.com\/auvi-q-demo. Updated 2013<\/a>. Accessed March 1, 2013.<\/li>\n
  8. Auvi-Q is now available in the US. Intelliject Web Site. www.intelliject.com\/2013\/01\/29\/auvi-q-tm-is-now-available-in-the-us. Updated January 2013<\/a>. Accessed March 1, 2013.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    By: Diana Gritsenko, Pharm D. Candidate c\/o 2015 – Most of us who work in a community pharmacy setting will usually get a few scripts a month for an Epi-pen\u2122.\u00a0 An Epi-pen\u2122 is a device that autoinjects epinephrine (also known as adrenaline) into a patient who is experiencing anaphylaxis. Anaphylaxis is a severe, whole-body allergic…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[1076,343,22,1517,800,2108,13,2227,1609,94,35,314,20,407,93,1763,2261,363,968,1625,19,2230,12,11,2260,628,99,187,21,2252,1003,1061],"class_list":["post-1239","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-politics","tag-allergen","tag-and","tag-blood","tag-blue","tag-delivery","tag-device","tag-drug","tag-ebola-virus-disease","tag-emergency","tag-february","tag-food","tag-for","tag-health","tag-injection","tag-january","tag-live","tag-lung","tag-of","tag-one","tag-or","tag-patient","tag-pharmaceutical","tag-pharmacist","tag-pharmacy","tag-pressure","tag-right","tag-september","tag-side","tag-study","tag-symptoms","tag-tm","tag-with"],"views":1110,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rhochistj.org\/RhoChiPost\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1239","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rhochistj.org\/RhoChiPost\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rhochistj.org\/RhoChiPost\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhochistj.org\/RhoChiPost\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhochistj.org\/RhoChiPost\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1239"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rhochistj.org\/RhoChiPost\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1239\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rhochistj.org\/RhoChiPost\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhochistj.org\/RhoChiPost\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhochistj.org\/RhoChiPost\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}