February 2013
A new smartphone-style adrenaline injector has been launched in the US and began to hit pharmacy shelves over there last week. The device, Auvi-Q, was developed by food-allergic twin brothers Eric and Evan Edwards and was approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) last summer. It is the first and only compact auto-injector with audio and visual cues that guides patients and caregivers step-by-step through the injection process.
Read a report on Auvi-Q here. To view a demonstration of the device, click here.
Each pack contains two devices and a non-active training device.
In the Anaphylaxis Campaign’s recently published study – “Living with severe allergy: an anaphylaxis campaign national survey of young people” (Worth et al., Clinical and Translational Allergy 2013, 3:2 (22 January 2013) – only 66% of survey respondents reported carrying their auto-injector everywhere they go, with a further 28% reporting they carried it most places.