1st needle-free COVID-19 vaccines approved in China, India. What about Canada?

The next generation of COVID-19 vaccines is here – and it’s needle-free.

A nasal version of the COVID-19 vaccine has been approved in India, while regulators in China have also cleared an inhalable booster option administered through the mouth.

In Canada, all the approved COVID-19 vaccines are in the form of injections, but Canadian scientists are also developing a needleless technology that they believe could be more effective.

“This is really a novel and unique approach to vaccination,” said Dr. Fiona Smaill, professor of infectious and medical microbiology at McMaster University.

“The COVID pandemic has pushed a lot of researchers now to think about different ways of giving vaccines that in the long run may be more effective.”

Smaill is leading the clinical trial, authorized by Health Canada, for two new adenovirus vector-based COVID-19 vaccines that can be administered by inhalation.

Unlike currently available vaccines that are injected, these are delivered by inhaled aerosol and target the lungs and upper airways, where respiratory infections begin.

While still in the early phases of development, with Phase I clinical trials ongoing, Smaill says this needleless technology could be a “game-changer” in terms of how we approach vaccination.

For a respiratory virus like COVID-19, generating an immune response in the lung with the inhaled vaccine is “much more effective” than in the bloodstream as is the case with an intramuscular injection, she explained.

The current Phase 1 clinical trial includes 36 healthy adults who have already received a pair of mRNA COVID-19 vaccine doses, such as Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna, according to the university scientists.

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“We’re looking at this as a booster to the currently available vaccine,” said Smaill.