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，以促进针对新冠肺炎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，从来没有药物经济学的理由可以承担使用自我给药装置接种疫苗的额外成本，而不是简单的瓶子和针头注射器方法。然而，新冠肺炎大流行的到来给我们的工作方式和社会互动带来了重大变化，影响了医疗保健的管理方式。个人可以使用定制的自动注射器注射疫苗，这种疫苗经过了重要的人为因素评估，以确保安全和方便使用，这可能会促进基于人们自己家中的全国新冠肺炎接种计划。这不仅通过消除医生和设施管理注射的需要而显著减轻卫生服务的负担，还降低了个人的暴露风险，对高危人群尤其重要，并通过消除安排去诊所就诊的需要为个人提供了额外的节省时间的成本效益。此外，该设备还为自己提供了一个平台，有可能开发出更广泛的英国疫苗接种战略，使个人能够安全而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设备方面拥有悠久的历史和世界级的专业知识，但目前英国甚至全球都没有适合疫苗输送的设备。这项建议将使OM最终确定一种适用于安全家庭使用的改装疫苗自动注射器(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接种系统(RDS)的基础，在该系统中，个人将(1)自行接种疫苗，(2)通过使用家庭检测试剂盒确认抗体的存在，以及(3)使用设备连接创建数字确认，以验证疫苗交付和抗体测试结果，从而为免疫的电子认证提供基础。这一能力可能影响深远，并可能为应对多重社会和商业挑战提供解决方案，例如参加大规模聚会或航空旅行的活动，以帮助英国恢复某种程度的常态。

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.