No more needles
The Katerva Awards are set on a trajectory for immediate global impact. The winner of the 2012 award, the Bioneedle receives its award at the Palace of Nations in Geneva on July 2nd, but is already set for global impact. The Bioneedle might change the landscape of immunization and health prevention forever.
Saver, cheaper and more effective
The Bioneedle is about the replace the rather outdated needle that is still used for immunization. This century-old invention causes many infections and need to kept cool at all times, which is hard since many vaccination programs are located in the hot parts of the world. The Bioneedle should make vaccination saver, cheaper and more effective and could literally save millions of lives.
The core of the Bioneedle consists of a new and unique pharmaceutical polymer, which is used for the manufacturing of hollow, biodegradable, needle-shaped mini-implants, the vaccine carriers. Vaccines are loaded and thermo-stably incorporated into these carriers to form vaccine-prefilled-Bioneedles. After intravenous delivery, the polymer starts absorbing body fluids within seconds and is degraded within minutes, thereby releasing the vaccine. The loading capacity serves multiple vaccines in just one Bioneedle. Delivery is safe and painless and leaves no (contaminated) waste.
Gijsbert van de Wijdeven from Bioneedle Technologies Group: “The 2012 Karva Award is a huge honor and recognition of our work. We hope that this prize convinces organizations like the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Worldbank, the United Nations, the WHO and other health organizations are to support our vaccination technology. We need that support to give the Bioneedle a place in medical care and improve the health of the world’s population.”
Bioneedle – Vaccination Technology of the 21st Century from Bioneedle on Vimeo.
