Covid-19: vaccination patches could soon replace syringes – LCI

No more needles that distress, the Covid vaccine could soon be injected via a simple square of plastic one centimeter by one centimeter covered with more than 5,000 tiny peaks impregnated with the vaccine. In any case, this is the project of Australian researchers whose study was published in the scientific journal “Science Advances”.

If the vaccination projects using patches are not new and have multiplied since the start of the pandemic, the results of the study published on Friday are particularly promising.

Indeed, this technique has been tested on mice and the results collected have therefore largely “surpassed” those obtained with another group of mice, vaccinated with a needle. According to Dr. Muller, study co-author and virologist at the University of Queensland, Australia, the antibody response was “very strong” for mice vaccinated via the patch, “including in the lungs, which is important for Covid-19”, he detailed.

Secondly, the efficacy of a single dose was evaluated. By using an adjuvant, which serves to stimulate the immune response, the mice are then “not at all sick”.

The vaccine would therefore be more effective thanks to this new administration technique. This is because unlike the syringe, which results in intramuscular injection, the patch allows insertion of the vaccine through the skin where there are more immune cells required to support the vaccine.

In addition, the patch has tiny peaks on its surface, on which the vaccine is deposited. If they are invisible to the naked eye, they cause tiny injuries, which alert the body of a problem and thus stimulate the immune response. Two minutes of exposure would be enough to administer a dose.

This technique also has practical advantages, according to scientists. The vaccine can remain stable for a month at 25 ° C, and a week at 40 ° C (compared to a few hours at room temperature for the vaccines from Pfizer or Moderna). This therefore allows less dependence on the cold chain, which constitutes “a challenge for developing countries”.

The patch is also “incredibly easy to administer”. It is put on using a simple applicator (which looks like a hockey puck), and would therefore no longer require the mobilization of trained nursing staff.

Burak Ozdoganlar, professor of engineering at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh in the United States, has also been working on these patches since 2007. He sees another benefit: “A smaller amount of the vaccine, delivered precisely to the skin, can produce an immune response similar to an intramuscular injection”, he emphasizes. An important factor at a time when countries are fighting for doses and when the WHO has warned of a possible shortage of syringes in Africa which could delay the vaccination campaign on this continent.

The patch used in the study was made by the Australian company Vaxxas, which is the most advanced in the industry. Phase 1 clinical trials are planned from April. However, this is not the only company to have embarked on this research. In the United States, Micron Biomedical and Vaxess are also working on the development of this technique.

According to Micheal Schrader, the CEO of the latter, the urgency of the pandemic has given a boost by attracting investors. “From my point of view, it’s the future, it’s inevitable”, he assured AFP. “The next decade will see a radical overhaul of the way vaccines are distributed around the world.”