• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Advertise
  • Subscribe

Drug Delivery Business

  • Clinical Trials
  • Research & Development
  • Drug-Device Combinations
  • FDA
  • Pharmaceuticals
  • Policy

Scientists develop microjet device for needle-free vaccine delivery

March 14, 2017 By Sarah Faulkner

Scientists develop microjet device for needle-free vaccine deliveryResearchers from the University of California Berkeley have developed a needle-free delivery device for vaccines. The team published their work in Science Translational Medicine. 

The MucoJet device is a pill that releases its cargo in a microjet when pressed up against the cheek. The pressure generated from pushing the device against the cheek is enough to force large molecules through the patient’s mucosal layer and into tissue concentrated with immune cells.

According to the team, the microjet is not painful and the device is simple to use. Children could self-administer a vaccine without the common, fearful reaction to traditional delivery methods like injections, the researchers said.

The MucoJet runs on a dry mix of citric acid and sodium bicarbonate, which combines with water from a separate reservoir when the patient bits into the tablet. The chemical reaction then moves to a reservoir containing the vaccine, pushing it out of the pill and into the cheek.

The researchers said the pressure generated by the tablet is similar to that of a waterpick.

The team evaluated its technology in rabbits and found that the device was capable of penetrating the buccal mucosal layer. They saw that rabbits treated with ovalbumin using the MucoJet device had antibody levels in blood serum and buccal tissue that were 3 orders of magnitue higher than rabbits receiving ovalbumin delivered topically by a dropper.

“MucoJet has the potential to accelerate the development of noninvasive oral vaccines, given its ability to elicit antibody production that is detectable locally in the buccal tissue and systemically via the circulation,” the researchers wrote.

Filed Under: Drug-Device Combinations, Featured, Research & Development Tagged With: University of California Berkeley

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

  • Glooko adds chief strategy officer to chief medical officer’s title
  • Cordis launches 10,000-patient registry for drug-eluting balloon
  • Senseonics opens $50M public offering, $25M private placement with Abbott
  • Study links Abbott CGM use to lower risk of hospitalizations due to heart complications
  • Go-Pen ApS wins FDA nod for user-filled insulin pen

Primary Sidebar

“ddb
EXPAND YOUR KNOWLEDGE AND STAY CONNECTED
Get the latest news and trends happening now in drug delivery.

MEDTECH 100 INDEX

Medtech 100 logo
Market Summary > Current Price
The MedTech 100 is a financial index calculated using the BIG100 companies covered in Medical Design and Outsourcing.

Footer

Drug Delivery Business News Logo

MassDevice Medical NETWORK

MassDevice
DeviceTalks
Medical Tubing + Extrusion
Medical Design & Outsourcing
MedTech100 Index
Drug Discovery & Development
Pharmaceutical Processing World
Medical Design Sourcing
R&D World

DRUG DELIVERY BUSINESS NEWS

Subscribe to Drug Delivery’s E-Newsletter
Advertise with us
About
Contact us
Privacy
Listen to our Weekly Podcasts

Copyright © 2025 · WTWH Media LLC and its licensors. All rights reserved.
The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of WTWH Media.

Privacy Policy | RSS