The Great Emergence of a New Film Vaccine
Ms. Maria Croyle, a professor of pharmacology at the University of Texas at Austin, recently published an article on The Conversion, a global non-profit academic research media platform. The article describes her team is developing a drug that can quickly dissolve in the mouth. The film-based vaccine is used to replace injections. She believes that this innovation has the potential to bring major changes to the global distribution of vaccines and other medicines.
Develop an Effective Vaccine Against the COVID-19 Virus
Croyle said in the article that at present, researchers around the world are racing against time and plan to develop an effective vaccine against the COVID-19 virus. Once the trial is successful, the next biggest challenge will be the production and global distribution of the vaccine. And her team has developed a new method that can make vaccines and other medicines into a rapidly dissolving film, and this layer does not need to be injected, taken orally, and does not need to be frozen. In addition, the materials used to make the film are not expensive, and the manufacturing process is relatively simple, making it affordable for more people. In addition, it has a flat shape, does not occupy much space, and is easy to transport in large quantities.
Inspiring Thinking for a New Film Vaccine
According to Ms. Croyle, her team has been doing this research since 2007, commissioned by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). After seeing a documentary about insects and other biological DNA that can be preserved in amber for millions of years, their research and development team was inspired, and Chloe Le remembered the hard candy her grandmother had made before. Although the idea is simple and common, no one has ever tried to make vaccines or medicines like this. Therefore, the research team began to try to mix natural ingredients such as sugar and salt to test whether they can form amber like hard candy. In the end, after 450 tests in a year, they finally found the right formula.
Test Process of Film Vaccine
According to Croyle, the biggest breakthrough of the entire project is the successful completion of the Ebola vaccine test project. In the following production process, the research team gained more experience and simplified the production process of the product, so that the personnel in charge of production can master the production method without too much training. They adjusted the formula to make the product dry quickly so that it can be produced in the morning and shipped out after lunch. Currently, Ms. Croyle said that she is cooperating with start-up companies so that this innovative technology can be promoted within two years.
Croyle said that although the global vaccine utilization rate has increased significantly in the past 10 years, the level is still not high, and the above innovations have the potential to greatly increase this ratio, especially to solve the problem of expensive vaccine freezing. She said that if you want to transport the film-based vaccine, medical staff only need to put it in an envelope to distribute it.
Croyle said that although the global vaccine utilization rate has increased significantly in the past 10 years, the level is still not high, and the above innovations have the potential to greatly increase this ratio, especially to solve the problem of expensive vaccine freezing. She said that if you want to transport the film-based vaccine, medical staff only need to put it in an envelope to distribute it.
