Thoughts on injection pens & peptide filtering?

mercuryleaf7

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Hi everyone, I am currently waiting on my first grey order of Tirzepatide and whilst doing my research I have learnt about syringe filters and how they can remove bacteria and other nasties.

Obviously once you reconstitute and then go to pass the mixture through the filter you need a sterile vial.
I am struggling to find sterile vials or more so how to be sure they're sterile as I can't find any medical suppliers selling them in the UK.

I was thinking would it be better to just buy some pen cartridges and put the filtered solution into that to make it easier to inject each week.
I may have to sterilise the cartridges in a pressure cooker or something but I just thought if I'm going to all this effort anyway maybe I should have the convenience of a pen at the end of it.

Leading on from that what's everyone's favourite pen styles/brands? The ones I've seen so far are below.
  • Injector pen v2/v3
  • Bird pen
  • Uni pen
  • Novo Nordisk NovoPen4 (with adapter to make universal cartridges fit)
 
Ks-tek vials have been tested sterile and are available through Amazon or their website. I just checked and Ks-tek expanded their website to include cartridges and 4mm filters as well. Filters ordered in bulk are under $1ea!

Basically, No Profit，Make a Friend.

Toy & games,beauty,pet supplier,3c,home & kitchen ,Insustrical & scientific Excellent quality with competitive price.
ks-tek.com

Edit to remove "sterile" for cartridges. Seeking clarification from Ks-tek.
 
Last edited:
nonyabizznez said:
Ks-tek vials have been tested sterile and are available through Amazon or their website. I just checked and Ks-tek expanded their website to include sterile cartridges and 4mm filters as well. Filters ordered in bulk are under $1ea!

Basically, No Profit，Make a Friend.

Toy & games,beauty,pet supplier,3c,home & kitchen ,Insustrical & scientific Excellent quality with competitive price.
ks-tek.com
Click to expand...
Omg that's great I'll have a look. Hopefully they ship to the UK.
Thank you 😊
 
I'm strongly considering a bird pen because it's hard to get my V1 to work one-handed. But I keep hearing whispers that auto-injectors don't work well with sterilized carts, and I am not going to screw with sterilizing my own in the instant pot where I cook garbanzo beans.
 
randompersonrandom said:
I'm strongly considering a bird pen because it's hard to get my V1 to work one-handed. But I keep hearing whispers that auto-injectors don't work well with sterilized carts, and I am not going to screw with sterilizing my own in the instant pot where I cook garbanzo beans.
Click to expand...
I did see people say they messed up the carts' rubber bits by doing that!
 
desinr-gal said:
I did see people say they messed up the carts' rubber bits by doing that!
Click to expand...
Yep--there is just nothing that can make me believe I can achieve a consistent level of sterility that way without hilarity ensuing. So I lurk on all the pen posts, waiting for someone to burst onto the scene and say "Hey, look, these sterile carts work great with the bird pen, and also, here's a place selling the bird pen for twenty dollars, and also randompersonrandom gets a pony!"
 
nonyabizznez said:
Ks-tek vials have been tested sterile and are available through Amazon or their website. I just checked and Ks-tek expanded their website to include sterile cartridges and 4mm filters as well. Filters ordered in bulk are under $1ea!

Basically, No Profit，Make a Friend.

Toy & games,beauty,pet supplier,3c,home & kitchen ,Insustrical & scientific Excellent quality with competitive price.
ks-tek.com
Click to expand...
So I looked and noticed their cartridges do NOT say Sterile.
it says the packaging is sterile wth?
"Sterile Packaging: Each Cassette Bottle is individually packaged, providing you with a hygienic solution for insulin storage and safeguarding against contamination."

this is a concern.
 
mercuryleaf7 said:
Hi everyone, I am currently waiting on my first grey order of Tirzepatide and whilst doing my research I have learnt about syringe filters and how they can remove bacteria and other nasties.

Obviously once you reconstitute and then go to pass the mixture through the filter you need a sterile vial.
I am struggling to find sterile vials or more so how to be sure they're sterile as I can't find any medical suppliers selling them in the UK.

I was thinking would it be better to just buy some pen cartridges and put the filtered solution into that to make it easier to inject each week.
I may have to sterilise the cartridges in a pressure cooker or something but I just thought if I'm going to all this effort anyway maybe I should have the convenience of a pen at the end of it.

Leading on from that what's everyone's favourite pen styles/brands? The ones I've seen so far are below.
  • Injector pen v2/v3
  • Bird pen
  • Uni pen
  • Novo Nordisk NovoPen4 (with adapter to make universal cartridges fit)
Click to expand...
The cartridges I use come sterilized.

This is the type of pen I use (I have 3 of them)

You could buy all your supplies from them and I think that they ship to the UK since I was able to change my shipping address to that .. but I of course didn't follow through. I would send them a message before ordering just to make sure.
 
If you search pens you'll find previous threads in which this has been discussed at length.
This is always the best way to get as much info as possible on this forum.
I am using V1 pens because I like that they: come in pretty colors, are covered by a closed cap, and they were very reasonable from Alibaba, but can be found on other websites here.
 
desinr-gal said:
So I looked and noticed their cartridges do NOT say Sterile.
it says the packaging is sterile wth?
"Sterile Packaging: Each Cassette Bottle is individually packaged, providing you with a hygienic solution for insulin storage and safeguarding against contamination."

this is a concern.
Click to expand...
Thanks for pointing that out.

It used to say the same for their 3ml vials and Janoshik tested confirming sterility. I've emailed Ks-tek about the cartridges and will update if I hear back.
 
MsGizmo said:
The cartridges I use come sterilized.

This is the type of pen I use (I have 3 of them)

You could buy all your supplies from them and I think that they ship to the UK since I was able to change my shipping address to that .. but I of course didn't follow through. I would send them a message before ordering just to make sure.
Click to expand...
I'll check it out thank you 😊
 
I bought two Eli Lilly Huma Savvio pens. Thay are very nice quality, metal, easy to use.
I bought sterile cartridges from aliexpress.com
 
Last edited:
miss-sanne said:
I bought two Eli Lilly Huma Savvio pens. Thay are very nice quality, metal, easy to use.
I bought sterile cartridges from aliexpress.com
Click to expand...
I can't seem to get anything from Aliexpress - everything I click on takes me to a page where the product no longer exists. Is this an issue you have too?
 
ContainHer said:
I can't seem to get anything from Aliexpress - everything I click on takes me to a page where the product no longer exists. Is this an issue you have too?
Click to expand...
Yes! Its because of new rules and tariffs. The shippers dont want to deal with that. None of them will ship anything to Hawaii. 😕
You can try regular Alibaba, some same vendors will ship there, but you may need to fill out a what are you looking for form. I think to circumvent the censors.
 
mercuryleaf7 said:
Hi everyone, I am currently waiting on my first grey order of Tirzepatide and whilst doing my research I have learnt about syringe filters and how they can remove bacteria and other nasties.

Obviously once you reconstitute and then go to pass the mixture through the filter you need a sterile vial.
I am struggling to find sterile vials or more so how to be sure they're sterile as I can't find any medical suppliers selling them in the UK.

I was thinking would it be better to just buy some pen cartridges and put the filtered solution into that to make it easier to inject each week.
I may have to sterilise the cartridges in a pressure cooker or something but I just thought if I'm going to all this effort anyway maybe I should have the convenience of a pen at the end of it.

Leading on from that what's everyone's favourite pen styles/brands? The ones I've seen so far are below.
  • Injector pen v2/v3
  • Bird pen
  • Uni pen
  • Novo Nordisk NovoPen4 (with adapter to make universal cartridges fit)
Click to expand...
I bought a few reusable injection pens from Ali Baba and vials for them also . I was concerned about the sterility of the vials so I bought a UV Steriliser off Amazon . Only a small one for £20 as I only sterilise a few at a time when I need them
 
desinr-gal said:
Yes! Its because of new rules and tariffs. The shippers dont want to deal with that. None of them will ship anything to Hawaii. 😕
You can try regular Alibaba, some same vendors will ship there, but you may need to fill out a what are you looking for form. I think to circumvent the censors.
Click to expand...
Thank you, I thought that might be the issue, but wasn't sure since most seem to be giving consumers the opportunity to pay duties when the goods arrive. Hawaii is hard, I'm in logistics, and it's costly even when shipping domestically...which I'm sure you know give the COGS on the island.
 
Bootlegbob said:
I bought a few reusable injection pens from Ali Baba and vials for them also . I was concerned about the sterility of the vials so I bought a UV Steriliser off Amazon . Only a small one for £20 as I only sterilise a few at a time when I need them
Click to expand...
a UV sterilizer would work for vials? Interesting
 
ContainHer said:
Thank you, I thought that might be the issue, but wasn't sure since most seem to be giving consumers the opportunity to pay duties when the goods arrive. Hawaii is hard, I'm in logistics, and it's costly even when shipping domestically...which I'm sure you know give the COGS on the island.
Click to expand...
They are banning things like needles syringes etc.. all to try to thwart the grey market peptide use. Thats what I meant by censoring. The Alibaba seller told me that she could not include any pen needles, which previously had been included with pens in a bundle, so I got the pens, a case and 20 cartridges but no needles.
Yes we are remote, and yet we are halfway to California from China...
 
Bootlegbob said:
Lots of people use them for baby bottles , hairdressing equipment etc , so I figured its better than nothing as they aren’t sterilised when they arrive
Click to expand...
I bought a UV cube almost a decade ago for bottles - my husband now uses it to sterilize his CPAP weekly. I kind of regretted purchasing it, because it was $$ at the time, but honestly its lasted longer than my entire kitchen suite.
 
Bootlegbob said:
Lots of people use them for baby bottles , hairdressing equipment etc , so I figured its better than nothing as they aren’t sterilised when they arrive
Click to expand...
If you want to be sure they're sterile I think the best method is to put them in a pressure cooker in autoclave pouches.

I haven't done this yet but I've watched a few tutorials and I think this might be the path I go down since I don't want to make myself or any of my family ill.
 
MsGizmo said:
The cartridges I use come sterilized.

This is the type of pen I use (I have 3 of them)

You could buy all your supplies from them and I think that they ship to the UK since I was able to change my shipping address to that .. but I of course didn't follow through. I would send them a message before ordering just to make sure.
Click to expand...
That seems really expensive for carts.
 
randompersonrandom said:
I'm strongly considering a bird pen because it's hard to get my V1 to work one-handed. But I keep hearing whispers that auto-injectors don't work well with sterilized carts, and I am not going to screw with sterilizing my own in the instant pot where I cook garbanzo beans.
Click to expand...
The gansulin pen is way better than the bird pen. I like the bird pen, but gansulin is so much better. More expensive, sure, but way better. I have 2 gansulins, a bird pen, a Savvio, an All-Star Pro and a sulin pen from AE. Gansulin is my favorite, followed by the All-Star Pro.
 
IshimaruKenta said:
These are only UV "sterilized", not done through an autoclave. Whether you trust it or not is up to you. Same with ordering carts from AliExpress and thinking they're "sterilized". If the cart pack doesn't have a black mark next to sterile, it's not. 🤷‍♂️
Click to expand...
The carts I received from Ali Baba do have the black mark. The Underground supply carts say they are tested and sterile. there is a test number.
Where is your information saying otherwise coming from?
 
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