Outbreak response to rapidly enhance community immunity

PharmaJet^®, a company that has developed and commercialized a needle-free platform to more effectively administer drugs and biologics, today announced that their PharmaJet Tropis® Needle-free Injection System (NFIS) will be used in a door-to-door immunization campaign aimed at reducing the outbreak of circulating mutant poliovirus Type 2 (cMPV2). The initial pilot, targeting thousands of children under 5 years of age in the Sokoto North local government area (LGA) of Nigeria, will begin on November 5, 2022 and run for 4 days.

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Kangethe Ngure, Regional Director for Africa, PharmaJet, demonstrating Tropis device use to trainers in Sokoto, Nigeria. (Photo: Business Wire)

Since 1988, the world has made great progress in the global effort to eradicate polio, with wild polio cases dropping by 99.9%.¹ However, in areas with low levels of population immunity, the live, weakened virus contained in the oral polio vaccine (OPV) can genetically revert into a form known as circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus (cVDPV) that can cause paralysis. Type 2 cVDPV (cVDPV2) now accounts for most of the cVDPV cases globally, and is a major challenge to achieving global eradication. In Nigeria, 415 cases of cVDPV2 were reported in 2021² which also resulted in polio spreading to neighboring countries. Despite massive supplemental immunization activities (SIAs) the virus continues to circulate.

The Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) is supporting a new approach that uses a type 2 novel OPV (nOPV2), a next generation version approved for emergency use by the World Health Organization (WHO), that has demonstrated in clinical trials to be safe and effective. The Nigeria pilot campaign will combine the nOPV2 oral vaccine with an intradermal polio vaccine (1/5 of a full IPV dose) administered with the PharmaJet Tropis NFIS. If the approach is successful, with coverage greater than 90% for the pilot phase and a decrease in zero-dose children under routine immunization (RI), the pilot could be replicated in other States/LGAs in Nigeria and beyond.

“We are pleased to be selected for the polio vaccine campaign in Nigeria to curtail the spread of cVDPV2,” said Chris Cappello, President and CEO of PharmaJet. “Intradermal administration of polio vaccine with the PharmaJet Tropis NFIS has already been successfully used in mass vaccination campaigns in Somalia, Pakistan, Cuba, and The Gambia. The ease-of-use, coupled with patient and healthcare worker preference make the NFIS ideal for field immunizations.”

For more information about PharmaJet visit https://pharmajet.com.

Refer to Instructions for Use to ensure safe injections and to review risks.

¹ https://polioeradication.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/GPEI-nOPV2-Factsheet-EN-20221011.pdf

² https://polioeradication.org/where-we-work/nigeria/

About PharmaJet

PharmaJet’s mission is to enable greater access to life improving pharmaceuticals. We are committed to helping our partners realize their research and commercialization goals while making an impact on public health. PharmaJet Needle-free Systems provide increased vaccine effectiveness, a preferred patient and caregiver experience, and a proven path to commercialization. They are also safe, fast, and easy-to-use. The Stratis^® System has U.S. FDA 510(k) marketing clearance, CE Mark, and WHO PQS certification to deliver medications and vaccines either intramuscularly or subcutaneously. The Tropis^® System has CE Mark and WHO PQS certification for intradermal injections. For more information visit https://pharmajet.com. Follow us on LinkedIn.

About the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI)

The Global Polio Eradication Initiative is a public-private partnership led by national governments with six partners – the World Health Organization (WHO), Rotary International, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Gavi, the vaccine alliance. Its goal is to eradicate polio worldwide.

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