ALZET® Osmotic Pumps

              DURECT Corporation

Overview     ALZET osmotic pumps are miniature, implantable pumps for research in mice, rats, and other laboratory animals. These minipumps deliver drugs, hormones, and other test agents at continuous and controlled rates, for durations ranging from one day to six weeks, without the need for external connections or frequent handling. Their unattended operation eliminates the need for repeated nighttime or weekend dosing by lab personnel.                       ALZET minipumps can be used for systemic administration when implanted subcutaneously or intraperitoneally. They can be attached to a catheter for intravenous, intracerebral, or intra-arterial infusion. ALZET pumps can also be used for targeted delivery, where the effects of a drug or test agent are localized in a particular tissue or organ, by means of a catheter. ALZET pumps have been used to target delivery to a wide variety of sites including the spinal cord, spleen, liver, organ or tissue transplants, and wound healing sites.                                                                                                                                                                       ALZET pumps have been used in thousands of studies on the effects of controlled delivery of a wide range of experimental agents, including peptides, growth factors, cytokines, chemotherapeutic drugs, addictive drugs, hormones, steroids, and antibodies. Due to the unique mechanism by which ALZET pumps operate, compounds of any molecular conformation can be delivered predictably at controlled rates, independent of their physical and chemical properties. A bibliography of pump work which has been documented in the scientific literature is available, as is information on the osmotic delivery mechanism of ALZET pumps.