Delivery Systems
There are several new delivery systems in development in the hope of making vaccines more efficient to deliver. Possible methods include liposomes and ISCOM (immune stimulating complex).
The latest developments in vaccine delivery technologies have resulted in oral vaccines. A polio vaccine was developed and tested by volunteer vaccinations with no formal training; the results were positive in that the ease of the vaccines increased. With an oral vaccine, there is no risk of blood contamination. Oral vaccines are likely to be solid which have proven to be more stable and less likely to freeze; this stability reduces the need for a "cold chain": the resources required to keep vaccines within a restricted temperature range from the manufacturing stage to the point of administration, which, in turn, may decrease costs of vaccines. A microneedle approach, which is still in stages of development, uses "pointed projections fabricated into arrays that can create vaccine delivery pathways through the skin".
A nanopatch is a needle free vaccine delivery system which is under development. A stamp-sized patch similar to an adhesive bandage contains about 20,000 microscopic projections per square inch. When worn on the skin, it will deliver vaccine directly to the skin, which has a higher concentration of immune cells than that in the muscles, where needles and syringes deliver. It thus increases the effectiveness of the vaccination using a lower amount of vaccine used in traditional syringe delivery system.
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