Design of a Vaccine-specific Autoinjector Device to provide a long-term pandemic solution for the UK

英国医疗保健系统面临着巨大的挑战，以促进针对COVID-19的全民免疫接种计划的管理。疫苗接种过程的广泛性意味着，到目前为止，与简单的小瓶和针头注射器方法相比，使用自我接种装置接种疫苗的额外成本从未有过药物经济学依据。然而，COVID-19疫情的到来为我们的工作及社交方式带来重大改变，影响了医疗管理的方式。个人可以使用定制设计的自动注射器注射疫苗，该注射器经过了重要的人为因素评估，以确保其安全和易于使用，这可以促进基于人们自己家中的全国性COVID-19疫苗接种计划。这不仅通过消除对从业人员和设施进行注射的需要而大大减轻了卫生服务的负担，而且降低了个人的暴露风险，这对风险人群尤其重要，并且通过消除对安排到诊所就诊的需要而为个人提供了额外的节省时间的成本效益。此外，该设备还为开发更广泛的英国疫苗接种策略提供了平台，使个人能够安全方便地自行注射其他疫苗。Owen Mumford Ltd（OM）在设计和制造各种药物的自动注射装置方面拥有悠久的历史和世界一流的专业知识，但目前在英国甚至全球都没有适用于疫苗输送的装置。该提案将使OM能够完成适合安全家庭使用的改良疫苗自动注射器（VAI）的设计。我们的愿景是，VAI可以形成一个更广泛的快速免疫传递系统（RIDS）的基础，其中个人将（1）自我接种疫苗，（2）通过使用家用检测试剂盒确认抗体的存在，以及（3）使用设备连接，将创建数字确认以验证疫苗递送和抗体测试结果，免疫接种。这种能力可能影响深远，并可能为多种社会和商业挑战提供解决方案，例如参加大型集会或航空旅行，以帮助英国恢复某种程度的正常状态。

The UK Healthcare system faces an enormous challenge to facilitate the administration of a population-wide immunisation programme against COVID-19\. The widespread nature of the process of vaccination has meant that, until now, there has never been a pharmaco-economic justification that could bear the additional costs of vaccination using a self-administration device compared to a simple vial and needle syringe approach. The advent of the COVID-19 pandemic however, has brought about significant changes to our ways of working and social interaction that has impacted upon the way in which healthcare needs to be administered. The availability of a vaccine that could be injected by an individual using a custom-designed autoinjector that has undergone significant human factor evaluation to ensure its safe and easy use, could facilitate a nationwide COVID-19 vaccination programme based from people's own homes. This not only significantly reduces the burden on the health services by removing the need for the practitioners and facilities to administer the injections, it reduces the risk of exposure for the individual, particularly important for the at-risk population and offers additional time-saving cost benefit to the individual by removing the need to schedule a visit to a clinic. Moreover, the device offers itself as a platform for the potential to develop a broader UK vaccination strategy to enable individuals to self-inject other vaccines safely and with convenience. Owen Mumford Ltd (OM) has a long heritage and world class expertise in the design and manufacture of autoinjection devices for various medicines but a device suitable for vaccine delivery is currently unavailable in the UK nor indeed, globally. This proposal would allow OM to finalise the design of a modified vaccine autoinjector (VAI) suitable for safe home use. Our vision is that the VAI could form the basis of a much broader Rapid Immunisation Delivery System (RIDS) in which an individual would (1) self-administer the vaccine, (2) confirm the presence of antibodies by use of a home test kit and (3) using device connectivity a digital confirmation would be created to validate vaccine delivery and antibody test outcome to provide the basis of an electronic certification of immunisation. This capability could be far-reaching and may provide a solution to multiple social and business challenges, such attending events with mass gatherings or air travel, in order to help the UK return to some level of normality.