UQ eyes a needle-free future

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Tags: commercialisation, discovery, medical research, summer-2011, UniQuest

New company Vaxxas Pty Ltd will enable Professor Mark Kendall from UQ’s Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology to continue his pioneering research and development of the Nanopatch.

The AUD$15 million investment is led by OneVentures, with co-investors Brandon Capital, the Medical Research Commercialisation Fund and US-based HealthCare Ventures.

The Nanopatch has thousands of small projections designed to deliver the vaccine to abundant immune cells in the skin, whereas the traditional syringe hits the muscle where these are sparse.

Early stage testing in animals has shown a Nanopatch-delivered flu vaccine is effective with only 1/150th of the dose compared to a syringe.

In addition to improving the efficiency of delivery, the Nanopatch has the potential to dramatically improve patient convenience and reduce the complications associated with needle phobia, needle-stick injuries and cross contamination, which are key global health issues.

The Nanopatch is designed for thermostability and to not need refrigeration, making transport much cheaper and easier, particularly to developing nations around the world.

Professor Kendall said in the developed world about 14 percent of a vaccine’s costs were in maintaining the cold chain – while in the developing world the impact was even greater.

Member of the Vaxxas Board of Directors Douglas E. Onsi said the Nanopatch had the potential to transform vaccine delivery for the pharmaceutical industry and for patients around the world.

By Erik de Wit

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