THE DEVELOPMENT of microneedle patches means that in the not so distant future we may no longer need to go to our local GP for vaccinations such as the flu jab and other injections. Even better, the new microneedle devices will be completely painless.
Microneedle devices will be used to treat conditions ranging from diabetes to osteoporosis, and are expected to play a major role in low-cost public health-management activities such as the annual flu vaccination programme.
Arrays of tiny microneedles will be worn in the style of a discreet plaster or skin patch, where they will penetrate the skin and release a drug or vaccine into the body.
Almost 180 clinicians, scientists and entrepreneurs from 25 countries have gathered in Cork this week to discuss what may be the future of low-cost, painless drug and vaccine delivery – microneedle technology.
The Microneedles 2012 Conference was hosted from Sunday until today by the Tyndall National Institute and University College Cork, which are suppliers of world-leading silicon microneedle technology to a wide range of global academic and industrial partners.
Conor O’Mahony, microneedle research manager at the Tyndall National Institute, who is chairing the conference, said the large and diverse attendance reflected the enormous potential of the technology, and that microneedle-based devices should be on the market within a few years, garnering a share of the $30 billion (€23 billion) transdermal delivery market.
“We already have skin patches for HRT or nicotine replacement, but there are only about six or eight drugs licensed for delivery across the skin as the skin barrier prevents delivery of virtually all drugs. Microneedles are such tiny microstructures – only half a millimetre tall – that they can break the skin barrier painlessly and hit the upper layer which is very high in immune responsive cells,” he explained.
Dr O’Mahony pointed out that microneedle devices would make mass vaccination programmes much simpler and more cost effective, and would make it much easier to carry out such programmes effectively in developing countries. “Instead of going to your GP for your annual flu jab, you would get your microneedle patch in the post or through a pharmacy.”
Two US companies, 3M and Zosano Pharma, are in the advanced stages of clinical trials in the use of microneedles for the treatment of osteoporosis and the delivery of insulin to children. They are expected to have products ready for market in three to five years.
The microneedle group at the Tyndall Institute is working on the development of biodegradable microneedles for vaccination and on microneedles for cardiac monitoring which would replace the standard sticky electrodes used in ECGs.
