I got offered a box of Drew’s Daily Dose Pen Needles to try from the excellent Ash of Stripped Supply.
I had heard good things so I thought I would give them a go. My disclosures are:
- I received no money for the review
- I do not use Stripped Supply’s services
- Ash did once show my insulin writing pens on her Stripped Supply Insta Account (I had given her one as a gift)
The needles cannot be purchased from Drew’s web site but are purchased through the NDSS.
While I use an insulin pump and do not inject insulin, I do use Ozempic so I used the needles for that. When they ran out, I used the needles that came with Ozempic and a box of BD Ultra-Fine needles. Rather than weekly, I inject a scaled-down dose of Ozempic daily with a new needle, so it was not hard to go through the needle box.
Look and Feel
In the image above we have the Ozempic needle on the left, Drew’s needle in the middle and the BD needle on the right. As you can see, the design of the Ozempic needle and Drew’s needle are a lot similar than the BD needle. Looking at the packaging, the Ozempic needle is a NovoFine Plus 32G 4mm (same gauge and size as the other two needle types). The NovoFine Plus needles can also be purchased through an NDSS order but my understanding is supply can be problematic i.e. nonexistent.
Drew’s Claims
Drew makes a number of claims both on the box and on his web site. This seems like a good place to start the review.
Box Claim: Ergonomic
Ergonomic means “designed for efficiency and comfort in the working environment” which, in this case, presumably means when injecting. Certainly, I found the needles as comfortable on insertion as the other needles I used. Where it was slightly better was on holding the needle in the site for 10 seconds to allow the Ozempic to seep in. It is very easy for the injection pen to move around a little and, generally this did not hurt with the Drew needle, whereas there is sometimes pain with pen movement with the BD needle.
Box Claim: Reliable
I go through the entire box without issue but, then again, I can go through a BD box without issue as well so they perform as well as other needles in this regard.
Box Claim: High Flow
Given I was injecting relatively small amounts, I cannot say this was a major factor in my use. It may be something to consider, though, if you are finding issue with other needle brands.
Box Claim: 3 Bevel
I did not put the needle under the microscope to check but I have no reason to doubt the claim. A bit of Googling suggests NovoFine Plus needles and BD needles are also triple-beveled. Beveling the needle tip (cutting it at an angle) makes for a sharp point and allows the needle to go into the skin more easily.
Website Claim: Flat Hub Technology
It is easier to see what this is referring to if I show another picture without the needle caps on.
As you can see, the NovoFine Plus (Ozempic) needle (left) and Drew’s needle (middle) have a much wider base from which the needle protrudes than the BD needle (right). Based on this, Drew makes a few claims.
“Reduced Risk of Intra-Muscular Injection”. This is easier to explain with Drew’s diagram than in words.
While the needles may be the same length, the smaller width of the base allows for the skin to be pushed in more with a similar force. This, in turn, may mean the needle penetrates deeper and could hit muscle. Why is this important? Insulin disperses slowly from fat and much quicker from muscle. While generally not recommended, insulin hackers, looking to get a rapid drop in glucose levels, may choose to inject insulin into muscle, rather than fat. For the rest of us this just means less predictability and a higher risk of a hypo.
I did not notice any issue with Ozempic with either needle so I cannot say by how much the design reduces the risk but, again, if this is something you see with your current needle, this may be something to consider.
“Anti-tilt technology”. As I understand it, the idea here is that the wider base limits the pen moving around and reducing the risk of “bending and breakage”. It is true I have had a BD needle bend in site before and I have never had a Drew or NovoFine Plus needle do this. I am wondering if the anti-tilt technology also contributes to the reduced moments of pain, I mentioned earlier, when the pen moved around while the needle was in the injection site.
“Reduces Bruising and Indentation”. The claim is the reduced movement also reduces damage through needle movement, which can lead to bruising and skin distortion. I rarely bruise when injecting (I think this was more common when I first started) so this was not a differentiator for me in considering the different needle brands.
Reduces Needle-Stick Injuries
Again, this is easier to show than describe.
The idea is the green cap can be put into the back to prevent the back of the needle causing a stick injury and the bigger cap protects the front of the needle. Of the three designs, Drew’s is the only one which allows this, although it is a little fiddly. Very handy if you need to inject and you do not have a sharps container at hand.
My Overall Thoughts
The main reason I use the BD needles is because they are often available on the shelf of the chemist and it is a purchase of convenience. However, based on the above, the NovoFine Plus and Drew’s needles have superior aspects and Drew’s is the only one which is its own sharps container. While many of the claimed benefits do not speak strongly to me, this last one does, especially for travel, and for this reason, I will likely order Drew’s needles from now on as part of my NDSS pump supply orders.
If you are interested in getting the 32G*4mm needles for any of the brands mentioned, the NDSS numbers are:
- NovoFine Plus: 165
- Drew’s Daily Dose: 338
- BD Ultrafine: 266
The Practical Diabetic 