Entyvio is first drug to be developed with needle free delivery device.- Takeda + Portal Instruments.

Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited and Portal Instruments announced a collaboration to develop and commercialize Portal’s needle-free drug delivery device for potential use with Takeda’s investigational or approved biologic medicines. The Portal device was developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the laboratory of Professor Ian Hunter. The technology has the potential for applications across a range of biologic medicines that currently require administration through an injection.

The first Takeda development program to potentially utilize this device will be for investigational use with Entyvio (vedolizumab), a monoclonal antibody for adults with moderately to severely active ulcerative colitis (UC) or Crohn’s disease (CD), which is currently administered through intravenous infusion. A Phase III clinical trial program is currently evaluating the efficacy and safety of a subcutaneous formulation of vedolizumab in adults with moderately to severely active UC or CD. Portal’s needle-free drug delivery device delivers the biologic through a pressurized liquid instead of a needle, and has been clinically shown to be less painful and preferred by patients compared to a standard needle-based injection. This needle-free device is expected to be self-administered by patients at home.