Western’s Free Appropriate Sustainability Technology (FAST) research group, including research assistant Anjutha Selvaraj, has created a new open-source autoinjector to make the medical device an equitable alternative to the more expensive options. (Photo by Anjutha Selvaraj)
Western's Free Appropriate Sustainability Technology (FAST) research group, including research assistant Anjutha Selvaraj, has created a new open-source autoinjector to make the medical device an equitable alternative to the more expensive options. (Photo by Anjutha Selvaraj) Western team creates open-source medicine autoinjector 3-D printed device costs one-tenth of commercial alternatives, could revolutionize health-care for isolated, disadvantaged communities Sir Frederick Banting was clearly ahead of his time. He is also an inspiration for a new open source self-administering drug delivery device. Long before open source was an option or even a concept, the now-celebrated former Western lecturer refused to patent insulin because he wanted it to be inexpensive and widely available for the betterment of all. Now, 100 years after Banting won the Nobel Prize for his discovery, Western researchers are at it again. A team led by engineering and Ivey Business School professor Joshua Pearce has developed a new 3-D printed, completely open-source autoinjector - a device designed to deliver a single dose of medicine - for a tenth of the cost of a commercially purchased product. A new study, published today by the high-impact journal PLOS One , describes the manufacturing design of the spring-driven device, which could cost less than $7 to make while a store-bought version is closer to $70.
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