What if you could drink your COVID-19 vaccine instead of rolling up your sleeve? No needle — just a “pop and swallow.”
A C-NET tech news report states patients may be able to within the next couple of years, as researchers expand their focus onto mucosal vaccines, which include nasal or inhaled vaccines as well as “swish and swallow” oral vaccines such as QYNDR, which completed its phase 1 clinical trial and is currently waiting on more funding to conduct the more detailed, advanced trials that could actually bring the vaccine to market.
The QYNDR vaccine is pronounced “kinder,” because it’s a softer way to deliver a vaccine, says Kyle Flanigan, founder of QYNDR’s maker, US Specialty Formulations. Promising clinical trial results from New Zealand offer hope that QYNDR will be a viable option for protection against the string of COVID-19 variants circulating. The findings have not been peer-reviewed yet.
In a new study published in Matter, Traverso and his colleagues showed that they could use the capsule they developed to deliver up to 150µg of RNA – more than the amount used in mRNA COVID-19 vaccines (ranging from 30 to 100µg) – in the stomach of pigs.
The capsule, approximately the size of a blueberry, has a high, steep dome that enables it to orient the surface from which a needle is released towards the lining of the stomach. In 2019, they showed it could inject solid formulations of drugs, such as insulin, successfully and in 2021, deliver large molecules such as monoclonal antibodies in liquid form.
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