Prickly skin patch could spell the end for jabs, say researchers

Published on Wednesday 19 August 2009 22:06

A NEW prickly skin patch that delivers medicine painlessly could consign hypodermic needles to history.

The "microneedle" patches have the potential to replace traditional jabs and make the treatment of diseases such as diabetes safer, more effective, and less painful, say scientists.

They could also radically change the treatment of eye disorders that currently require unpleasant injections.

Each patch carries an array of tiny needles just a few hundred microns long, equivalent to the width of a few strands of hair.

Loaded with vaccines or other drugs, they are designed to deliver medication through the skin with a minimum of discomfort.

The US scientists developing the device hope to begin human trials next year, having carried out successful tests on mice.

They hope the patch will lead to the first self-administered flu vaccine.

Dr Mark Prausnitz, from the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, who heads the research team, said: "It's our goal to get rid of the need for hypodermic needles in many cases and replace them with a patch that can be painlessly and simply applied by a patient.

"If you can move to something that's as easy to apply as a band-aid, you've now opened the door for people to self-administer their medicine without special training.

"Although it would probably first be used in a clinical setting, our vision is to have a self-administered flu vaccine patch."

Dr Prausnitz presented the findings at the annual meeting of the American Chemical Society in Washington DC.

In a separate study, the scientists showed that microneedles could effectively deliver drugs into the eye.