Vaccine patch without pinprick

From the idea to the product – this is how new therapies are created 

Dreams of the future or within reach – how far away are we from the vaccine patch for home use? The development of new therapies and their approval is very complex, explains Christoph Rademacher. For the vaccine patch, he and his dedicated team at the University of Vienna first experimented with cell cultures under the microscope to investigate whether immune cells are actually stimulated and whether toxicity might occur. 

In the next step, the vaccine was tested ex vivo on a skin model, "for this we had at our disposal remnants from breast plastic surgery or tummy tucks ." We could therefore  test on an intact piece of skin whether the cells reacted as they did in the isolated state. The immune response was then tested in living model organisms. "We are currently in the preclinical phase. But it may take up to ten years before the product is actually ready for the market," predicts the biochemist.  

An opportunity with Novartis

To drive further innovative research in its lab, pharmaceutical company Novartis awarded funding to Christoph Rademacher for his research proposal as part of the prestigious NIBR Global Scholars Program. "Although I cannot provide you with any details about the cooperation (yet), we are dealing with exciting questions related to drug targeting," reveals Rademacher. The relevance can be demonstrated using cancer therapy as an example. The high-dose active substances of chemotherapy should only attack tumour cells and not healthy cells. Together with colleagues from Novartis, the experts from the University of Vienna are researching a method that will enable them to better target and address specific cells more easily since the method should be applicable to different cell types. 

When science and industry put their heads together...

...a more fruitful exchange emerges. This is clearly illustrated by the LC-TDS method. Rademacher and his research colleagues have developed the basic technology. However, it is difficult for a university or a research institution to bring it to market – "and that is not their job. So we founded Cutanos ourselves to be more agile and have access to other resources",   Rademacher says, "For this reason, the collaboration with Novartis is fantastic, because the 'applied perspective' comes into play. We have regular meetings with colleagues from Novartis during which we share important questions and give each other input. We also notice that the 'project management thinking' in industry has a slightly different drive that advances developments – together we can make advances." (hm)