Particle Medicated Epidermal Delivery

Particle Medicated Epidermal Delivery, or PMED, is a type of needle free vaccine that was developed by British medical firm PowderMed. These vaccines can be used to treat the flu and chronic viral diseases too. The PMED injection system delivers the viral DNA to the skin's epidermal layer, where it goes into the immune network's cells, making for a more convenient way to treat and prevent the disease. This system is not only unique but can be adapted to treat bird flu with ease, improving upon traditional vaccines, especially because it can be self-administered and needs not be refrigerated for stockpiling. Thus it would not be strange to see them at a drugstore or even an online pharmacy.

Another advantage of PMED is that regular flu vaccines are developed in chicken eggs, a 50 year old process that can take up to nine months, whereas large quantities of DNA-based vaccines can be quickly manufactured, providing a high rate of effectiveness with low doses. This means that improved vaccines for new flu strains can be produced in less time, which would allow the health care sector to catch up with the disease, and maybe even get one step ahead of it.

PowderMed was acquired by Pfizer (the large company responsible for Viagra), who saw great potential in the blooming vaccine market, an industry worth billion of dollars. In the United States alone, seasonal influenza causes over 20,000 hospitalizations and about 36,000 casualties a year. PowderMed had been developing DNA based vaccines for seasonal and bird flu, as well as studying vaccines for Hepatitis B and Herpes. The acquisition was expected to give this research a boost, thanks to the technological and economic power of Pfizer, which is the largest pharmaceutical company in the world.