Another pipeline project is oral vaccines. My instinct tells me there would be a significant market for this (I hate shots)(see bold):
10/30/99 Agence Fr.-Presse (Pg. Unavail. Online)
1999 WL 25134553
Agence France-Presse
Copyright 1999
Saturday, October 30, 1999
Cutting edge technologies could take sting out of vaccinations by Louise Daly
ATTENTION - FEATURE ///
CHICAGO, Oct 30 (AFP) - If injections give you the needle, and
hypodermic syringes induce panic attacks, help could be at hand.
The cutting edge technologies may just take the sting out of that
hepatitis B innoculation, insulin shot, or dreaded jab in the
dentist's chair.
The humble fat molecule could provide the key, to new delivery
methods which could make immunization as painless as popping a pill,
experts say.
Endorex Corporation, one of a number of start-up companies which
showcased their wares at the Chicago Biotech Network conference here
this week, is formulating vaccines that can be delivered in pill
form.
By coating the vaccine in polymerised liposomes, or hardened fat
molecules, the vaccine will be able to get through the stomach
intact, making it unnecessary to go the intravenous route, Endorex
says.
"Traditionally lipids get broken down in the stomach," explains
Michael Rosen, president and chief executive officer of the Lake
Forest, Illinois-based outfit.
"But in this format they would pass through the stomach, and get
taken up in the intestine and into the blood stream."
"It could change the face of the vaccine industry," he said.
Currently 96 percent of all vaccines are injected because of the
destructive effect of stomach acids and enzymes on vaccines.
Endorex, and Irish partner Elan, will begin trials of an oral
tetanus vaccine on humans in the next six months.
If the technology passes all the clinical and regulatory hurdles,
the newer, gentler vaccines -- beginning with tetanus and diptheria -
- could be on the market in 2001, Rosen told AFP.
The product would certainly make it easier for parents of young
children, according to biotech analyst Michael Becker, with Chicago
brokerage Wayne Hummer Investments.
"Children under the age of two in the United States are required
to have 19 injections," he noted.
And speaking as a father of a two-year-old daughter, "it's
probably worse for the parents," he said.
Children aren't the only ones who struggle with jabs.
"The hepatitis B vaccine requires three shots, but it's so painful
that most people don't complete the course," Rosen said.
The advance could also be a boon to diabetics struggling with up
to five insulin jabs a day, and patients receiving the human growth
hormone, Rosen noted.
Coremed, another fledgling player from Gurnee, Illinois, in search
of funds at Friday's event, is hawking an invention which would allow
drugs to be miniaturised into membrane form and absorbed through the
skin.
One of their products, a transmucosal patch, could take the edge
off a visit to the dentist, said Coremed president Frank Leung.
"A Lidocaine patch would numb the gum so that the patient would
not feel a deep injection," he said.
"And why take a generalised painkiller for localised pain? he
asks, when one of these self-adhesive patches could be used to treat
a toothache.
Leung said the polymer-based membrane, which goes on like a lotion
and peels off like a skin, would also be a cost-effective way of
delivering oestrogen, vitamin B12 (commonly recommended for anaemia)
and everyday painkillers such as aspirin or Tylenol.
At NeoPharm, scientists are also harnessing the power of the fat
molecule, this time in the battle against cancer.
The company has developed an "encapsulated" form of the most
widely used anti-cancer drug, Taxol, which it hopes will be as
effective as its predecessor but with fewer of the debilitating side
effects.
By coating Taxol in liposomes, which cannot be absorbed by the
tiny blood capillaries which feed the nerves or the hair cells,
NeoPharm aims to eliminate some of the worst side effects -- hair
loss, nausea and neuropathy or painful nerve endings.
The drug would still target the tumor, Jim Hussey, president and
CEO of NeoPharm located in Bannockburn, Illinois, told AFP.
The results of the first clinical trials of LEP, or Liposome
Encapsulated Paclitaxel, on humans will be unveiled Friday, Hussey
said.
"But so far so good," he said, adding that in trials on animals,
hair loss had been completely eliminated.
ld/sg
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