Prefillable syringes were introduced to the market again in the early 50s, when Becton Dickinson supplied glass prefillable syringes for Dr. Jonas Salks' polio vaccine project. Since then, prefilled syringes have continued to be used, mostly in the field of insulin and human auxin administration. However, it is in the last 5 years that prefilled syringes have really become popular, and they have become almost a mandatory product for injectable suppliers. Most innovative liquid medicines, if suitable, will be marketed in syringes.

The pharmaceutical market is changing, with an increase in the number of biotech therapies and drug candidates that can only be administered by the injectable route in a wide range of therapeutic areas such as multiple sclerosis, infertility, osteoporosis, hepatitis, rheumatoid arthritis, cancer, anemia and hemophilia. Some biotech drugs require frequent injections by the patient, and they benefit the most from the convenience of prefilled syringes, which eliminate some of the steps and make them faster and easier to use.

The patient's needs are the real driving force behind the development of prefillable syringes. Measuring out a vial into a syringe is a time-consuming task that is prone to error for people who are not adequately trained. In addition, people with some diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis often have difficulty holding the vial steady and measuring the exact dose. Pharmaceutical manufacturers have changed some drug products from lyophilized to liquid dosage forms to facilitate their loading into prefilled syringes, such as Berlex's multiple sclerosis drug Betaseron, Novo Nordisk's human growth hormone Norditropin, and Genentech's human growth hormone Nutropin have all been changed from lyophilized to liquid dosage forms in prefilled syringes.