Engineering Of Polymer-Based Delivery Vehicle For Delayed Burst Release

Nearly all vaccines, including bovine tuberculosis (TB) vaccine, require repeated administration for maintenance of immunity. This means follow up visits from the vet and higher cumulative cost of vaccination. To eliminate the need for booster shot administration, a new delivery system was developed exploiting osmosis to trigger delayed burst release of an active compound (e.g., TB vaccine). Previously, poly(ɛ-caprolactone) based osmotic devices were produced and proved to be an effective technique for delayed release. However, lack of elasticity in the capsule material resulted in a prolonged rather than immediate release after burst. The new formulation offers an elastic delivery vehicle, which combines a delayed and immediate release of its payload without applying external triggers. In this presentation, some of the preliminary in-vitro results including release profile, accelerated degradation, mechanical properties, burst pressure as well as the challenges in the design of this device and manufacturing methods (e.g., 3-D printing and dip-coating) will be discussed.