A vaccine without a Covid-19 needle? These businesses are in the business

The pandemic led to a golden rush for vaccine research and development. Developers of new vaccine delivery technologies hope that they are next, and that the quest to vaccinate the planet will invest them in investment dollars and attract large deep-pocketed partners who can help bring their products to market.

The land is a field littered with impenetrable development and expensive equipment that the simple needle, syringe and glass bottle could not put off for decades. Apart from the occasional nasal spray for flu or sugar lump for polio, the hypodermic needle has been the mainstay of protection against infectious diseases since the pioneer in Dublin in 1844.

Skeptics say that because the needles are so cheap, plentiful and effective, they are unlikely to change. But the belief among delivery technology executives and others in the vaccine world is that the pandemic has revealed to everyone what they have long considered a fake economy. Vaccinating millions is not a cheap and easy task as the existing technology requires freeze chain logistics, an army of trained personnel to inject needles, long queues, wasted doses and billions of dollars.

“We need to find a better solution,” said Kate Bingham, a venture capitalist who led the UK government’s vaccine procurement and deployment program until December. “Ultimately, we need to be in a position where the whole world can be vaccinated when and when a nasty virus comes along.”

The technologies being developed for the delivery of vaccines include solving Enesi implants, microneedle patches, electrical pulse systems, nasal sprays and even pills. Some companies are developing their own vaccines against Covid-19, while others are aiming to reform some of the dozens that have already been developed or launched worldwide. Some put out this pandemic in hopes of being ready for the next one.

All are in the early to mid stage of development and clinical trials, suggesting that it may take months if not years before they hit the market. Large pharmaceutical companies have so far shown limited interest.

If successful, proponents say, these technologies hold the promise of a world where shots against a mutant coronavirus arrive via email, vaccines can be kept on a shelf and delivered at home, and shots are fired with ease brought to the most remote communities. on earth.

“There is going to be an absolute renaissance in this particular space,” Mr. Hipkiss said.

All vaccines approved for use against Covid-19 must be injected into a muscle. In addition to being easy to administer, this method also has an immunological rationale: it stimulates a response that involves multiple parts of the immune system to protect against future exposure.

But there are other ways to stimulate the immune system, such as through the skin, intestines or nose. This is one of the usual routes that foreign invaders take to get into the body. Vaccine delivery platforms in development seek to take advantage of these different avenues.

The skin, for example, consists of several layers that are rich in cells that serve as sentinels for the immune system. It is an ancient custom to vaccinate people against diseases by scratching the skin with needles. Bifurcated needles penetrating the skin are a painful reminder to American citizens who were recently vaccinated against smallpox in the 1970s.

Michael Schrader and David Hoey run companies with neighboring facilities in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and similar names that develop patches with many microscopic needles to deliver vaccines painlessly through the skin. The spots are housed in applicators that look like espresso pods. The ease of use and storage makes it ideal for mass vaccination in poor countries without advanced health care infrastructure and trained medical staff, says Mr. Schrader and Hoey.

Mr. Schrader, CEO of Vaxess Technologies Inc., said the possibility that Covid-19 would persist for 19 years, and require regular mass vaccination to prevent new outbreaks, means that microneedle technology also has the potential to be a useful weapon in to become the government of the government. health weapons.

“Our hypothesis from day one was that Covid would become endemic and start to look much more like flu,” he said. The company’s goal, he said, is to make a combination of Covid-19 and flu stain “sent to your home each year.” Initial clinical trials of the combination vaccine in humans are planned for early 2022, Schrader said.

Mr. Hoey, CEO of Vaxxas Inc., an Australian firm, said the pandemic meant governments were waking up to the cost of infectious diseases and the need for pandemic preparedness. He does not expect to be able to manufacture his microneedle stains on a commercial scale for perhaps three to five years, but thinks he will find a readiness market as governments prepare for future health crises.

“What you really want is to get the vaccine in the people and that the people should not come to the vaccine,” he said.

Other researchers are looking at alternative ways to remove needles. PATH, a non-profit global health organization, is working on a way to freeze vaccines that make it possible to make a pane that dissolves in a gel under the tongue.

“Some people don’t like shots. Some people do not like to return for boost shots. So this is where alternative technologies will help, ”said Manjari Lal, who is leading PATH’s work on vaccine and drug reformulation.

Codagenix Inc., based in Farmingdale, NY, is developing a Covid-19 vaccine that is injected into the nose. The single-dose vaccine, known as Covi-Vac, is undergoing a small phase 1 clinical trial in London to determine the safety and the immune response it generates.

Jeffrey Fu, the company’s chief operating officer, said the pandemic offered new technologies a rare opportunity for advancement, given the world’s hunger for vaccines. “Because of the great urgency of this, many regulators are helping these device companies sooner than they would if it were more of a traditional vaccine,” he said.

For Dan Mahony, a healthcare fund manager at Polar Capital, a London fund manager with about 18 billion pounds, equivalent to $ 25.5 billion, in assets under management, it is not clear if these new technologies will ever be able to play that big ‘. a role as their developers hope.

People may not like needles, but they work well and cost little, he said. Manufacturers of Covid-19 vaccines are already making improvements to address some of the distribution challenges: Johnson & Johnsonsay

Covid-19 vaccine requires one dose instead of two. Pfizer Inc.

and BioNTech SE have told U.S. regulators that their latest tests on the vaccine they are developing together show that it can be safely stored at minus 20 degrees Celsius, or minus 4 degrees Fahrenheit, after initially opting for minus 70 degrees Celsius.

Mr. Mahony said it was not entirely clear whether the world would need long-term vaccination against Covid-19, or that governments would prefer to protect only their most vulnerable citizens during new outbreaks, such as with flu.

“The jury is still not sure if there will even be a market for Covid vaccines after the initial pandemic, and if so, what does it actually look like?” he said.

Write to Jason Douglas by [email protected]