US 12,257,421 B2
Auto-injector
Matthew Ekman, Cheshire (GB); Yannick Hourmand, Haslingfield (GB); and Timothy Donald Barrow-Williams, St. Albans (GB)
Assigned to Sanofi-Aventis Deutschland GMBH, Frankfurt am Main (DE)
Filed by Sanofi-Aventis Deutschland GMBH, Frankfurt am Main (DE)
Filed on Apr. 13, 2022, as Appl. No. 17/719,441.
Application 17/719,441 is a continuation of application No. 16/809,669, filed on Mar. 5, 2020, granted, now 11,311,671.
Application 16/809,669 is a continuation of application No. 15/880,251, filed on Jan. 25, 2018, granted, now 10,603,436, issued on Mar. 31, 2020.
Application 15/880,251 is a continuation of application No. 15/165,720, filed on May 26, 2016, granted, now 9,931,471, issued on Apr. 3, 2018.
Application 15/165,720 is a continuation of application No. 13/806,324, granted, now 9,352,088, issued on May 31, 2016, previously published as PCT/EP2011/060726, filed on Jun. 27, 2011.
Claims priority of application No. 10167506 (EP), filed on Jun. 28, 2010.
Prior Publication US 2022/0305204 A1, Sep. 29, 2022
This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.
Int. Cl. A61M 5/20 (2006.01); A61M 5/32 (2006.01)
CPC A61M 5/2033 (2013.01) [A61M 5/3202 (2013.01); A61M 5/3257 (2013.01); A61M 2005/206 (2013.01); A61M 2005/208 (2013.01)] 20 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. An auto-injector, comprising:
a housing configured to receive a medicament container, the medicament container containing a medicament;
a stopper movable in a proximal direction relative to the medicament container to dispense the medicament from the medicament container;
a container carrier configured to be disposed within the housing, the container carrier having a proximal end region configured to engage a proximal portion of the medicament container, the container carrier and the medicament container being configured such that a distal portion of the medicament container extends distally beyond a distal end of the container carrier and a distal flange of the medicament container is distally spaced apart from the container carrier while the proximal end region of the container carrier is engaged with the proximal portion of the medicament container;
a plunger configured to displace the stopper in the proximal direction relative to the medicament container when the medicament container and the container carrier are disposed in the housing;
a drive spring disposed within the housing, the plunger being biased in the proximal direction relative to the housing by a proximally-directed force of the drive spring;
an actuation element configured to rotate about an axis relative to the housing, the actuation element comprising an angled surface;
a needle sleeve slidably disposed within the housing and comprising a protrusion configured to engage the angled surface of the actuation element, the needle sleeve configured to slide axially relative to the housing from (i) a proximal position in which the needle sleeve extends proximally beyond a proximal end of the housing and a flexible arm holds the plunger in a distal position relative to the housing against the proximally-directed force of the drive spring to (ii) a distal position in which the protrusion of the needle sleeve has moved along the angled surface of the actuation element, the actuation element has rotated about the axis relative to the housing and the flexible arm, and the flexible arm has outwardly deflected to release the plunger from being held in the distal position relative to the housing against the proximally-directed force of the drive spring; and
a needle sleeve spring configured to axially bias the needle sleeve in the proximal direction,
wherein the drive spring is configured to translate the plunger to a proximal position relative to the housing to displace the stopper in the proximal direction to dispense the medicament from the medicament container after the flexible arm has outwardly deflected.