Exclusive: AstraZeneca and Vaxess developing skin patch mRNA vaccines for pandemic flu

As­traZeneca is de­vel­op­ing a nov­el type of mR­NA vac­cine that can be ad­min­is­tered as a shelf-sta­ble skin patch in­stead of a shot, po­ten­tial­ly mak­ing dis­tri­b­u­tion and ad­min­is­tra­tion of pan­dem­ic vac­cines eas­i­er, End­points News has learned.

The phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal gi­ant is part­ner­ing with Boston biotech start­up Vaxess, which could get up to $10.3 mil­lion from As­traZeneca in a joint ef­fort to de­vel­op pro­to­type vac­cines for pan­dem­ic in­fluen­za, Vaxess told End­points in an ex­clu­sive in­ter­view. Those funds are part of a larg­er award worth up to $80 mil­lion from the De­part­ment of De­fense that As­traZeneca could use to de­vel­op and test the vac­cine through a Phase I/II clin­i­cal study.

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