Pitch 1-3 :Development and sales of Vaccine seal

[Summary]

Vaccination is an important way of preventing many infectious diseases and vaccine administration follows an immunobiologic route. When one visits the hospital, the doctor injects the vaccine into the subcutaneous layer of the skin, which is often painful because of the use of needles. To overcome this painful procedure, Kyushu University had built a startup - Novigo, which aims at developing a novel approach of vaccine administration through Vaccine Patch, which is a non-invasive technique. The start-up has a set goal to promote healthcare services by making vaccines accessible to a chunk of the population.

The Vaccine Patches are safe to use without any pain and can also be self-administered without the assistance of any health experts. However, due to the high molecular weight of vaccines, its penetration through skin seems to be a difficult task. To break this physiological barrier, Kyushu University has developed a novel technology called "Solid-in-Oil" technology that can help vaccine penetrate into the skin. In this process, the vaccine adjuvant is coated with a surfectant that helps retain the active component of the vaccine and leads to the penetration of the vaccine into the skin, thus attracting immune cells.

The vaccine patch is in its final stage of clinical trial and will be available to the beneficiaries by 2022. The start-up has plans for expansion of its research product to the overseas market to make it a global brand.

[Mentors' comments]

　"For your technology you conclude that you can achieve the same therapeutic level compared with injection? " Dr. Dan Wang, Johnson & Johnson Innovation

　"Is the injection really the reason to make it not accessible?"Dr. Toshio Fujimoto, Takeda Pharmaceutical Company

[Profile]

Qingliang received bachelor degree from Pharmaceutical University in China and joined in Program for Leading Graduate Schools, Kyushu University. Now he is a PhD 2nd year student and focus on the transdermal drug delivery system. He wishes to transfer his scientific achievements to industrial application in NOVIGO.