Needle-Free Patch Typhoid Vaccine Coming

SK bioscience today announced that the company has entered into a collaboration agreement with Vaxxas to develop a second-generation typhoid conjugate vaccine.

SK bioscience’s SKYTyphoid™ vaccine will be reformulated to be ‘printed’ onto the thousands of tiny microprojections covering the Vaxxas patch to be delivered directly to the abundant immune cells just under the skin surface.

This reformulation aims to enhance access and broaden markets where traditional intramuscular delivery using needles and syringes has been employed.

Under the agreement announced on August 23, 2023, SK bioscience will supply the antigen utilized by its typhoid conjugate vaccine, SKYTyhpoid™, jointly developed by SK bioscience and the International Vaccine Institute.

Vaxxas, an Australian company, will be responsible for reformulating the SKYTyphoid antigen so that it can be applied to its proprietary HD-MAPs and then conduct preclinical studies, which, if successful, will be followed by a Phase I human clinical trial.

Jaeyong Ahn, CEO of SK bioscience said in a press release, “Typhoid fever is a dangerous disease that frequently occurs in low- and middle-income countries, but the utilization of typhoid vaccines has been limited due to the requirement for vaccines that remain stable under varying temperatures and those that can be administered without medical supervision."

This collaboration with Vaxxas provides an opportunity to overcome those challenges."

The project is expected to be completed within two years from initiation to reporting the data from the Phase I clinical trial and is supported by grant funding received from Wellcome.

According to the World Health Organization, an estimated 9 million cases of typhoid fever occur globally each year. Symptoms include prolonged high fever, fatigue, headache, nausea, abdominal pain, and constipation or diarrhea, with mortality rates up to 30%.

As of August 24, 2023, typhoid vaccines are available in the U.S. and internationally.