Seattle company trying to make vaccinations more pleasant

There are a lot of reasons parents decide not to immunize their children. For one, holding down a screaming infant while a nurse sticks a needle into the baby over and over is not a pleasant experience.

A Seattle company is working on that. It has just received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to start clinical trials of a micro-needle technology for delivery of vaccines.

Dr. Darrick Carter, the Vice President of Adjuvant Technologies at the Infectious Disease Research Institute (IDRI), says the needles are hard to see with the naked eye but they puncture the outer layer of skin.

It allows vaccines to be delivered just under the skin with far less pain than a traditional injection. Carter says the plan is to have the micro-needles on a patch that could be administered at home.

The technology could be ready with yearly vaccines like the flu within a few years. It could be used for childhood vaccinations in the next decade. Carter says the micro-needles are both less painful and more effective.

“When you put a needle through the skin into the muscle, you bypass 70 percent of your immune system,” says Carter, “I’d be surprised if our kids’ kids do the same kind of vaccination strategies that we do right now.”

IDRI is signing people up for their clinical trials now. They hope to have initial results on the micro-needles early next year.