Norwood Abbey begins animal studies on needle-free vaccination injection device

By E. Janene Geiss

Philadelphia, Jan. 25 - Norwood Abbey Ltd. said this week that it has begun animal studies for the application of its needle-free injection device for the delivery of virosomes, which are potent carriers of antigens for vaccination.

The program, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, will study the effects of delivering virosomal material through the skin with the needle-free injectable prototype already developed under the Norwood-MIT research program, according to a company news release.

The program's primary aim is to demonstrate an ability to achieve an adequate immune response with a substantially reduced amount of the active vaccine material.

Indications are that the active material component required may be as little as 1% to 5% of the current requirement, officials said.

If proven, officials said, this concept could alleviate manufacturing bottlenecks that may otherwise arise in the case of pandemic situations, such as with influenza outbreaks.

It also could result in significantly lower cost per procedure, a critical factor with mass vaccination in underdeveloped countries, officials said.

Using the Norwood-MIT needle-free device offers the potential to deliver virosomes as vaccines to the antigen-presenting cells. These cells form the first part of the immune system under the skin, trapping and responding to foreign infections, officials said.

Delivery by this means should greatly improve the immune outcome compared to the more common techniques, such as intra-muscular injections, officials said.

The new studies at MIT complement the virosomal studies conducted by Virosome Biologicals, which Norwood Immunology recently acquired an option to purchase, officials said.

Norwood Abbey, based in Melbourne, Australia, is a medical technology company that develops and commercializes technologies to address significant unmet medical needs. The company's two business segments are drug delivery and immunology.

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