Inhalant Powder Measles Vaccine

Filed in archive Drugs, Vaccines and Therapeutics on August 17, 2009

Scientists have developed the first dry powder inhalable vaccine for measles. This less invasive method of delivery are best suited particularly in developing countries where there are areas that often lack the electricity for refrigeration, clean water and sterile needles needed to administer traditional liquid vaccines.

To create an inhalable vaccine, Sievers and his team of students and researchers developed a patented process known as the "Carbon Dioxide-Assisted Nebulization with a Bubble Dryer," called CAN-BD. The weakened measles virus is mixed with "supercritical" carbon dioxide - part gas, part liquid - to produce microscopic bubbles and droplets, which then are dried to make an inhalable powder.

The powder is puffed into a small, cylindrical, plastic sack, with an opening like the neck of a plastic water bottle, and administered. "By taking one deep breath from the sack, a child could be effectively vaccinated," Sievers said.

Animal safety trials are expected to be finished this year and human clinical trials will commence next year in India.