COVID-19 Microneedle Vaccine Delivery Could Enhance Efficiency and Reduce Dose

DEBIOTECH SA (Lausanne, Switzerland) will be collaborating with vaccine companies, foundations and public organizations, using its unique DebioJect™ Microneedle, to improve the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines by reducing the necessary dose to achieve a sufficient immune response.

The immune response induced by intradermal administration of fifth of an intradermal dose for rabies is believed to be equivalent to the full dose given intramuscularly. In the case of influenza vaccine, the same intradermally injected dose has been shown to elicit a superior immune response in the elderly. These micro-needles, therefore address two key issues related to the current pandemic: faster access to a larger share population with the same vaccine production capacity and better protection of the most vulnerable part of the population.

The success of intradermal injections with conventional methods requires experience and skills. However, the CE marked DebioJect™ can be used without specific training and consists of one short (less than 1mm) hollow microneedle, part of a disposable automatic insertion device. It can infuse up to 0.5 milliliter of a liquid formulation in less than five seconds, just like a conventional injection. The micro-needles are manufactured using Micro-Electro Mechanical System (MEMS) techniques which are capable of producing billions of microneedles on a single fully automatized production line.

"We are eager to actively participate to one of the most important challenge of our times, protecting the population against this COVID-19 pandemic by use of all available technologies, vaccines and drugs," said Frédéric Neftel, MD, President of DEBIOTECH SA. "We have been already working for many years on innovative intradermal vaccine delivery systems, which could be one way to increase the efficiency of future vaccines, while making it available to more patients with the same dose amount."

"DebioJect™ has already been successfully used on humans in multiple studies and can be produced at very high scale, thanks to a unique MEMS production process we have been working on for over 10 years," said Laurent-Dominique Piveteau, PhD, MBA INSEAD, CEO of DEBIOTECH. "Our entire team of over 50 PhD's, engineers and technicians is ready to move into this exciting task to deliver a potentially novel and more efficient vaccine technology to everyone."

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