Nano Vaccine Delivery Patch

Here's a really interesting article about the development of a vaccine patch that's nano in comparison to current delivery systems.

Professor Mark Kendall of the University of Queensland has developed the idea of this "nano" patch for vaccine delivery. With the recent 15 million dollar investment boost, this patch should be on the market and available to use within the foreseeable future. While the article didn't give a timeline estimate, the money was also used to fund the company Vaxxas, which will commercialize the patch, so obviously with a company starting the patches shouldn't be long away from usability.

It's been called "the biggest breakthrough in vaccine delivery since the invention of the syringe more than 150 years ago," and there's plenty of reason why. The traditional method of the syringe involves sticking the needle into a muscle cell where few immune cells exist. Now with the nanopatch, there are hundreds to thousands of small injections going directly to many immune cells. The patch avoids stick infections, cross contamination, and uses less dosage than normal.

Potential benefits and applications of this patch are endless. First of all it can save millions of dollars on needles and medical supplies, so that money alone can go to other things. Secondly, more vaccines can be distributed in poor countries/regions. Thirdly, this can be a gateway patch for other medicines and applications like diabetes or chemo or anything that requires drugs or chemicals to be administered.

http://www.news-medical.net/news/20110803/Needle-free-nanopatch-vaccine-delivery-system.aspx