Institut Pasteur de Dakar has opened a new front in its push to enable low-cost access to vaccines, teaming up with the medtech company Satio to advance candidates based on intradermal delivery patch technology.
Satio is the developer of a clutch of diagnostic and delivery technologies. The portfolio includes SatioRx, a technology designed to enable low-cost, effective metered dose low volume drug delivery. The device is applied to the skin. When activated, a microneedle array extends to deliver the vaccine or drug held in a single dose click-in vial intradermally. The needles retract after delivery.
Institut Pasteur de Dakar, a nonprofit based on the Senegalese city from which it takes its name, sees the technology as a good fit for its work to drive vaccine innovation and access in Africa. The partners aim to accelerate clinical development of the patches.
“The global COVID pandemic has further highlighted the need for rapid and broad access to vaccines and diagnostics in Africa and beyond. Satio’s technology has the potential to radically simplify the healthcare workflows and to enable delivery at a significantly lower total cost in healthcare systems globally,” Sharad Joshi, president and CEO of Satio, said in a statement.
Satio shared news of the collaboration alongside details of a strategic partnership with Intact Solutions. The Satio-Intact partnership is intended to establish a collaborative health technology framework with a view to offering intradermal patches as an alternative to traditional needles in Africa.
Institut Pasteur de Dakar also collaborates with Intact, an aseptic packaging company. Satio said the organizations will work together on epidemics with pandemic potential in a three-way collaboration.