“Needle-Free” Vaccines Pushed by Gates Foundation, U.S. Government

• by Marco Cáceres

• Published December 4, 2023
• Opinion

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The pharmaceutical industry is continuing to receive funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the U.S. government to develop vaccines that can be administered without using a syringe. Last month, the Gates Foundation awarded a $23.6 million grant to Micron Biomedical, Inc. of Atlanta, Georgia to manufacture needle-free vaccines. This was followed by two separate $3 million grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to Orlance, Inc. of Seattle, Washington to create needle-free vaccine delivery systems, and a $5.5 million grant from the Department of Defense (DoD) to Lumen Bioscience, Inc. of Seattle to make needle-free shots.^{1 2 3 4 5 6 7}

A Child Can Be Vaccinated “Within Minutes” Using Needle-Free Technology

The grant to Micron Biomedical is for the mass production of dissolvable microneedles attached to the skin on a “patchlike device” that would make it more efficient to transport, store and administer

vaccines than use of traditional syringes to inject vaccines. According to the company, its dissolvable “microarray technology” will be applied specifically to measles-rubella (MR) vaccine and “reduces the need for a cold chain and allows a community health worker to vaccinate a child within minutes by applying the technology to the skin and pressing a button that confirms administration.”^{1 2 3}

Micron Biomedical notes that another advantage to its product is that it makes the process of vaccination “virtually pain-free” and can be self-administered. The “peal and stick” microneedle patch essentially works like a Band-Aid.^{2 8 9}

Gates Foundation Awards Millions to Speed Up Development of Needle-Free Vaccines

The Gates Foundation has previously given money to Micron Biomedical to develop its needle-free vaccine technology. On June 1, 2017, the organization gave Micron $2.2 million to fund the first clinical trial of its new vaccine delivery technology on children. Micron received another $900,000 from the Gates Foundation in 2022 to design manufacturing facilities to make needle-free vaccines.^{2 10 11}

In recent years, the Gates Foundation has awarded millions of dollars to other pharmaceutical companies to develop needle-free vaccines, including Vaxess Technologies, Inc. of Boston, SK bioscience Co. Ltd. of South Korea and Vaxxas Pty. Ltd. of Australia.^{12 13 14}

NIH Awards Grants to Drug Companies to Manufacture Microparticle “Gene Gun” Vaccine Delivery Systems

NIH has also given millions of dollars to pharmaceutical companies for development of needle-free vaccines. The two Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grants to Orlance on Nov. 28 were to help advance development aned production of a microparticle “gene gun” technology for a universal influenza vaccine and a vaccine against melanoma. The vaccines would deliver DNA or RNA vaccine-coated microparticles directly into cells of the outer layer of the skin (epidermis).^{4 5}

Last year, NIH awarded a grant worth more than $800,000 to PharmaJet, Inc. of Golden, Colorado to evaluate needle-free delivery system for the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine. NIH has also been working closely with PharmaJet for several years on a needle-free Zika vaccine.^{15 16 17}

DoD Awards Grants to Drug Companies to Make Needle-Free Malaria, Anthrax and Encephalitis Vaccines

DoD’s grant to Lumen Bioscience on Nov. 29 was to support development of a Module Dual Scaffolded Adjuvent (MoDuSA) needle-free vaccine technology which builds on Lumen research that is creating an intranasal malaria vaccine against. “This new technology could expand access and ease vaccine production, storage and administration in future public health emergencies,” said Nhi Khuong, vice president of preclinical development at Lumen.^{6 7 18}

In the past, DoD has awarded a grant of $943,856 to Iomai Corp. of Gaithersburg, Maryland to help develop a needle-free anthrax vaccine. DoD has also been working with PharmaJet on development of a needle-free DNA Venezuelan Equine Encephalitis (VEE) vaccine. On Mar. 17, 2020, PharmaJet received a $9.6 million multi-year contract from the Joint Science and Technology Office of the U.S. Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) for work on the VEE vaccine.^{19 20} According to a PharmaJet press release:

DTRA, through the Medical CBRN Defense Consortium (MCDC), is funding the use of needle-free technology to further progress promising nucleic acid vaccines, while also funding the development of PharmaJet’s next generation needle-free devices.²¹

COVID Pandemic Fuels Research to Fast Track Creation of Needle-Free Vaccines

For several decades, scientists have been developing needle-free vaccines, specifically microarray patches (MAPs) that are applied to the skin, but it appears now that the COVID-19 pandemic has given this effort more urgency. Needle free vaccine research is on a fast track, fueled at least in part by government public health policies promoting mass use of new vaccines that support the strategic business interests of the pharmaceutical industry.

Officials at the public-private business partnership known as Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance believe that the COVID pandemic experience has “reinvigorated interest and investment in the [MAP] technology.” It is anticipated that the first pre-licensure clinical studies for vaccine MAPs could begin by 2026 and that the first of these needle free biological products could be made available for public distribution by 2028.²²

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