Why I stopped using Enbrel Mini
A little while back I wrote a review of my first experiences with the Enbrel Mini injection system. I stand by that review. I think Amgen, the makers of Enbrel, were onto something good when they designed the Enbrel Mini and AutoTouch. However, my Enbrel Mini has failed several times at this point, and I’m going to switch to a different Enbrel delivery method.
Right now, I’ve taken Enbrel for two months. That’s 8 doses—or it should be. At this point, though, I’ve used the AutoTouch 10 times for Enbrel injections, and 3 of them have failed. A 3/10 failure rate is pretty bad.
Each injection failed in the exact same way: I would place the AutoTouch on my skin, press the button when it lit up green, and wait as the injection began. I would feel a small prick, but then I wouldn’t feel the medicine being injected into my body (read: there was no pain). After the AutoTouch indicated the injection was complete, I would lift the AutoTouch off my skin to find a pool of Enbrel on top of my skin. There were always slight needle pricks where it had tried to inject, but it didn’t look like the needle had gone fully in. The AutoTouch gave me no error message any of the times this happened.
Again: three separate times, the needle of the Enbrel Mini didn’t properly penetrate my skin. Instead of being delivered, the Enbrel was sprayed on top of my skin. The AutoTouch never gave me any error messages.
The first time it happened, it was late at night. I called the Enbrel nurse hotline, but guess what? There’s a special division for dealing with Enbrel Mini, and it has shorter hours, so they couldn’t help me. I had to wait until the next day to call again and figure out what I was supposed to do (take another dose since it didn’t seem like any was actually delivered). Then, I had to go through an entire incident report, and then they told me they would send me another Enbrel Mini cartridge.
The second time it happened, I went through the process again, throwing away my afternoon to getting my medication sorted out. The third time it happened, I emailed my doctor and asked to be switched to prefilled syringes, like I’d been using with Humira.
At first, I thought maybe the delivery person might have damaged it. They have a history of unceremoniously throwing my medicine boxes down the stairs. But it happened again when I got it sent to the pharmacy for pickup, and again with a dose that was sent to my parents’ house.
The device is supposed to be foolproof, or at least that’s what the instructions seem to indicate. There are error messages for everything. If the AutoTouch doesn’t have proper contact with the skin, it’s supposed to stop. If there’s a problem with the injection, there’s supposed to be an error icon. There are errors for battery level and temperature and needle exposure. I followed all the instructions I was given, yet it failed with no warning.
Maybe it was something wrong with my AutoTouch unit (the injector). Hopefully it was. But it was becoming too much work for me to address the issue. I could have gotten them to send me another unit, but what if that one failed too? It wasn’t worth the stress and the worry and an hour of my time every two weeks. When it’s several-thousand-dollar medication, a delivery failure isn’t something I can just shrug off.
I still haven’t called Amgen to report the latest AutoTouch failure. At this point, maybe they would send me a new AutoTouch. Really, after the second injection failed, someone should have done something more to figure out what was going wrong. Maybe I needed more training. Maybe it was the AutoTouch.
Maybe I should have insisted they do something about it, and maybe I still should. But you know what? That’s not my job. I’m the user. I don’t have hours to devote to troubleshooting this device every month so that Amgen can make their product work better. I cooperated with them after the first two failures because it benefited me (I needed them to send me replacement medicine). Each time, they thanked me for helping them make their product better, like I had a choice.
At this point, I’m moving on instead of going through the process again. I’ve had a good experience with pre-filled syringes in the past, so I feel a lot more comfortable just going back to them and leaving these difficulties behind. What I’m worried about, though, is this happening to people who don’t have the ability to switch to another delivery method. Amgen’s only response has been to request the Enbrel Mini cartridges back for quality investigation—no follow-up on what might be going wrong or what can be done to prevent it or fix it.
I’m putting this out there in case anyone else is having problems with the Enbrel Mini and AutoTouch. I can’t find anything else about it online, but that doesn’t mean it’s not happening. Has anyone else had this problem, or a different one?
-Bri
I love creating resources like this, but each one takes a lot of time and research. If this post helped you, consider supporting the site with a coffee! Thanks! <3
18 Comments
Rheumie
Yes, this exact thing happened to me. Very frustrating and time consuming. I wasted three cartridges in a row one week. I got a new machine, that did not fix it. Amgen always seems surprised when I call to tell them the issue. It’s a mystery! I’m switching back to a different injection type as well. It’s not just you!
Bri
It’s great to hear it’s not just me or something I was doing! Although not great for Enbrel Mini… They always acted very surprised when I called, too, and it was so frustrating I could never get any answers. Three cartridges in one week is a lot, I hope it turned out okay for you.
K. Jones
I am a new enbrel user and have only had 4 injections. The last two did exactly what yours did. I actually felt the medicine rolling down my leg during the injection but never lifted the auto touch off my leg. No error codes nothing. The first failed injection I had like a blister which went down within half an hour. It seemed to have injected the medicine just barely under the skin. The next week far more medicine rolled down my leg onto my suede chair and left big wet spots now stains as well as on the back of my sweat pants. I have called Amgen twice now and gave reports. The do not indicate there is any problems and just apologize. They are suppose to replace the two doses and send a new auto injector. Now I am concerned this is going to be a bigger issue than I thought. I have psoriatic arthritis and the humira caused great back pain and I was unable to sit after just 3 injections. Took me over 8 weeks to get back to a normal for me. Sure wish you the best with what you have chosen to do.
Bri
I hope your new autoinjector works! It’s all so frustrating, and the medication and complications are so expensive. Maybe they’ll figure out what’s going wrong with them. And I hope Enbrel works for you!
K. Jones
Just received it today but not packed well so not sure if it has been dropped or banged up in shipment. Guess we will find out tomorrow when I have to inject again.. Since writing my comment with you I have been on the phone with them several times close to 8 hours total. They cannot seem to get it together. Lots of problems with their systems and communication. Thank you for your well wishing. I wish the same for you as well. Take care.
Bruce Ferguson
I’ve been using mine since May and haven’t had a single failure. I don’t know what the issue with yours, but I’m thinking it has to be operator error or a bad injector. I would’ve insisted on a new injector after the first failure.
A
I hate this thing so much. I’ve been on injectable biologic medications for >10 years and my doc sent this rx meaning well because it’s supposed to be less painful. It makes a little bleb/blister every time. And hurts so much more than just administering a prefilled syringe. And since I assume it’s only going intradermal and not really subcutaneously, I’m pretty sure I’m not actually getting the medication. Seriously hate it so much. But it’s such an act of Congress to deal with prescriptions and prior auth and all that nonsense, I’m just DREADING having to deal with it all just to change the injection method.
But I do love Enbrel. Thank God for modern medicine and functional joints…when the medicine goes in.
Bri
I know what you mean! I love prefilled syringes so much. Even the less painful formula used in the Mini cartridges hurts more when it’s injected like that! I’ve had to switch from an autoinjector to a prefilled syringe twice now, and I don’t know why insurance companies can’t make switching forms of the medicine easier. I hope you can get it changed without too much hassle!
Lisa madry
Interesting. Glad I found this. I’ve been using the Mimi injector for 2 years and never had a problem til the last couple of months when I started seeing more liquid at the skin. My previous injector alerted that the battery was low so I thought my issue was a low battery. It took hours dealing with Amgen to get them to send a replacement and and ended up just getting one from my doctor. That one failed completely- the door to the injector wouldn’t open and it beeped incessantly. After more phone calls they sent me a new injector and it seemed to work ok for a couple of doses and then this week I had the experience you described where it looks like most of the dose just ran down my skin. Im wondering if they changed manufacturers or something because it didn’t have issues before. I’m also wondering if I should just try another method. Enbrel seems to work well for me but I don’t think I’m getting a consistent dose at this point. Have others had better luck with another form of injection?
Patrick
I had problems with the auto-click injector due to my lack of body fat (had to inject it into muscle and it was a struggle getting the thing to trigger sometimes), so I tried this starting in December. Had my first failure today where the needle lost contact with the skin and I only got a half injection. To make it work I have to gather up what subcutaneous fat I can find near the belly button and hold it tightly, I think I got lazy today and loosened my grip. It then beeped at me for 2 minutes without allowing me to open the door. I wanted to throw it out the window.
nofearchic
I had this exact same issue (literally, just happened 10 minutes ago)! I kept it flush to the skin, got the green indicator light.. felt the needle prick, but no medicine pain like usual. When i removed the injector after it was “complete” … a bunch of liquid began running down my leg. Part of me is relieved because I didn’t have to feel the pain, the other part is like… “well what now…”
I am so glad I’m not the only one that has experienced this!
Natalie
I have been using the Enbrel mini auto injector for 2 years and have never experienced this. Ever. In fact today after my shot the battery light came on and I need to get a replacement. But the manual does say the lifespan of the battery is 2 years. Which, seems unreal since the battery is only used once a week for less than 30 seconds LOL. But as far as not injecting the meds I’ve never had this issue. It’s been an absolute breeze.
Erin Furey
This has been happening to me! This is my second time! I was sent a new injector and am using a new box of enbrel doses and it just happened again!!! I was trying to figure out if I did something wrong but was so happy when I found your post and it described exactly what happened to me. I’m not alone! Thanks!
Donna Helene Moeller
I just had a misfire tonight. I held the autoinjector against my skin and instead of feeling the usual stab and 8 seconds of pain, I got medicine running down my leg. For the last 12 injections there has been NO doubt the needle goes in, and then I get the pain of the injection, and success. But not tonight. It’s late at night, so I’m not going to report it or try again until tomorrow. But I’m glad there is a place like this where we can share our misfire experiences.
Mark
have any out you tried the SureClick? I’ve been using it for 10 years and have never had an issue. Click the button (no settings) and it is injected within 5 seconds. Just a thought
Apprehensive Embrel user
I read previous comments and hoped this wouldn’t happen to me. Dr switched me from the auto click to mini auto injector. 2nd dose and embers ran down my stomach. I have evidence of needle penetration but don’t know how much if anything injected. Probably none since no pain. Too late to call embrel helpline and not going to I inject again. Too psyched out at this point.
Davis Thompson
I’ve had the autoinjector for years now. It works ok but runs out of batteries. Usually it works for a couple weeks other times i’m lucky to have one week. I got the auto injector because my doctor wanted to use less plastic compared to sureclick (insurance does not cover syringes). What’s better for the enviornment? Sureclick or Autoinjector mini cartridge?
Davis Thompson
Correction of previous post! I’ve had the autoinjector for years now. It works ok but runs out of batteries. Usually it works for a couple weeks after a battery alarm other times i’m lucky to have one week after the alarm. I got the auto injector because my doctor wanted to use less plastic compared to sureclick (insurance does not cover syringes). What’s better for the enviornment? Sureclick or Autoinjector mini cartridge?