Professor Mark Kendall, the Australian scientist heading up the team that’s working on a nanopatch for vaccines without needles, and his team have just won the 2010 Translational Research Excellence Commercialisation Award. From the news item on Nanowerk,

As a consequence of winning the 2010 Translational Research Excellence Commercialisation Award, Professor Kendall will meet senior executives from global pharmaceutical company Merck Sharp and Dohme in the US.

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“This is important, as it is a step towards partnering our Nanopatch with one of the world’s leading vaccine companies,” he [Mark Kendall] said.

“Our ambition is for Nanopatch to be taken from the current stage of animal model success through the clinical trials, and on to the market as a next-generation vaccine delivery device, potentially displacing the needle and syringe.

“This progression requires commercialisation and partnership with the right players. This award is an important step along this pathway.”

Nanopatch has been shown in trials to provide a protective immunisation in mice, with less than a hundredth of the dosage used compared to needle and syringe.

A part of the appeal of the Nanopatch is that it is painless, needle-free and is a potential solution for those with needle phobia.

Because the vaccine is formulated in dry form, it is also thermostable, removing the need for refrigeration.

Nanopatch is smaller than a postage stamp and is dissolvable, eliminating the possibility of needle-stick injury.

Congratulations, again. (The nanopatch was last mentioned here in my July 26, 2010 posting.)

I briefly noted the ‘nanopatch’ last year in an April 22, 2009 posting,

Scientists in Australia are developing a ‘nanopatch’ which would replace the use of needles for vaccinations.

It looks like those Australian scientists have gotten a step closer. According to a news item on Nanowerk,

“What we have been able to show for the first time is that the Nanopatch is completely dissolvable,” Professor [Mark] Kendall {Project Leader, Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology] said.

“That means zero needles, zero sharps, zero opportunity for contamination and zero chance of needle-stick injury.

“The World Health Organisation estimates that 30 percent of vaccinations in Africa are unsafe due to cross contamination caused by needle-stick injury. That’s a healthcare burden of about $25 per administration.”

The Nanopatch is smaller than a postage stamp and is packed with thousands of tiny projections – invisible to the human eye – now dried to include the vaccine itself together with biocompatible excipients.

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Research published in journal PLos One [Public Library of Science] in April found that the Nanopatch achieved a protective immune response using an unprecedented one-hundredth of the standard needle and syringe dose.

Professor Kendall said this was 10 times better than any other delivery method.

Congratulations to Professor Kendall and his team.