Prefilled syringes are a relatively new product in the syringe market.  Until the 1980s, this method of drug delivery, which involves pre-filling a syringe with the drug in a factory, was not common.  However, since the 1980s, the demand for prefilled medicines began to increase. The advantage of prefilled syringes is that medical staff do not need to use the syringe to draw the medicines before injecting them, and can directly open the package to perform the injection operation. This can increase the speed of the injection of certain drugs and also improve the accuracy of the injection. Since the drug in the prefilled syringe is expected to be the same for each dose, many vaccines are now available in the prefilled form, and some household drugs also use this method. With this packaging method, it is convenient for those who need to self-inject drugs at home.

Generally, prefilled syringes are filled with medicine in a plastic tube, and there is a protective cap to cover the cone of the syringe, which effectively prevents the leakage of the medicine and the oxidation reaction caused by long-term contact with air. It is important to follow specific procedures when using them. Most of these syringes are disposable, which means that the syringe needs to be discarded immediately after the drug is injected.

Because of the different characteristics of drugs, prefilled syringes are sometimes made of other specific materials, such as PC materials, glass, etc., and they can adapt to different storage environments.  For example, when the COVID-19 vaccine is pre-filled, PC or glass prefilled syringes are preferred to adapt to the storage environment of minus 40-70 degrees Celsius.

The most obvious feature of the prefilled syringe is that there is no need to use the attached vial to extract the drug. Since syringes are not always accurate to extract medicines, people may waste some medicines due to false operations. If the operation is careless, air bubbles may enter the syringe during this process. In addition, there are hidden dangers of accidentally injecting too much medicine or insufficient dosage per injection.