Needle-Free Vaccines Backed by Gates Foundation by TVR Staff

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Needle-Free Vaccines Backed by Gates Foundation

by TVR Staff

Published March 21, 2017 | Business, Pharma

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The vaccine patch is placed on the skin for five minutes rather than using a needle and syringe.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation recently awarded two grants worth a total of $6 million to the Boston-based life sciences company Vaxess Technologies, Inc. The grants will support research to create two micro-needle vaccine “patches” that simplify delivery of the inactivated polio (IPV) and live attenuated measles rubella (M-R) vaccines through needle-free delivery systems and heat-stabilized vaccines that do not require refrigeration.^1 2 
According to Vaxess and the Gates Foundation, needle-free vaccine delivery methods would help overcome the shortage of needles and syringes and lack of refrigeration equipment in developing regions of the world.¹ 

The technology developed by Vaxess is known as MIMIX—a sustained-release micro needle patch platform. The vaccine patch is placed on the skin for five minutes rather than using a needle and syringe.¹ According to Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News:

MIMIX is designed to lower barriers to vaccine access by simplifying dosing and administration, alleviating cold chain constraints, and lowering costs. The technology uses engineered, silk-derived biopolymer micro-needles to encapsulate antigens for transdermal administration and controlled release. The company extracts the key structural component of silk, a protein called fibroin, from natural fibers.² 

Michael Schrader, the CEO of Vaxess, has said that the “use of the MIMIX sustained-release micro-needle patch to combine doses and simplify administration has the potential to streamline global eradication efforts.”² His firm also received a grant of $448,416 in May 2016 from the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) for development of MIMIX technology.^2 3 

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