Needle-free vaccines - Future of HIV and malaria prevention

(dried vaccines)

Bill Gates' philanthropic foundation funds research into a needle-free vaccination method using molds made of sugar, a technology he hopes could help patients in areas that need it most.

Live vaccines—which contain active viruses or bacteria—are notoriously hard to deliver in resource-deprived areas because they must be continually refrigerated to keep them viable. However, with funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, researchers at King’s College London have found a way to administer a dried live vaccine directly to the skin—without needles—that remains effective at room temperature.

Besides solving the problem of refrigeration, needle-less vaccine delivery eliminates a host of other issues: the pain of injections and fear of needles that keep some people from being immunized, the risk of needle contamination with blood-borne illnesses like HIV, and the cost of purchasing many thousands of sterilized hypodermic needles.

If the technology becomes commonplace, it could also better the lives of millions who use needles every day to check their blood sugar levels, administer insulin, and inject anti-inflammatory drugs. In fact, clinical trials of a peptide-based vaccine for type 1 diabetes, led by Professor Mark Peakman of King’s College London, dovetail with these efforts to find better, less painful ways to administer life-saving drugs.