NEEDLE PROTECTION APPARATUS USED WITH A VIAL

A needle protection device for a vial has a collar at the base of which a number of finger grippers extend. The collar is placed about the hub of a vial and pushed therealong until the gripper fingers snap over the bottom surface of the needle hub so as to fixedly couple the collar to the needle hub of the vial. Flexibly extending from the collar is a housing that is pivotable to a position in alignment along the longitudinal axis of the vial for enveloping the needle, to thereby prevent the needle from being exposed to the environment. A hook integrated to the inside of the housing ensures that the needle and the housing could no longer move relative to each other once the hook snaps over and traps the needle, as the housing is pivoted to its alignment position. For those vials that have a needle hub that extends smoothly from the vial, a second embodiment of the instant invention has, in place of the collar, a base that has two extending arms with coacting ends. Once the base is slipped over the vial and positioned appropriately therealong, the arms are pressed towards each other until the two coacting ends lock into place to thereby fixedly couple the base to the vial. A housing flexibly extending from the base is pivoted to a position in alignment with the longitudinal axis of the vial for enveloping a needle that extends from the hub of the vial.