PharmaJet®, a company that strives to improve the performance and outcomes of injectables with its enabling needle-free injection technology, announced that the WHO prequalified Tropis ID delivery system will be used to support a polio eradication campaign sponsored by the National Emergency Operation Center (NEOC) Afghanistan, UNICEF, WHO, and other GPEI partners starting in August 2025.
Focused on the Eastern region of Afghanistan, the campaign will deploy Tropis ID to administer 1.3 million fractional doses of inactivated polio vaccine (fIPV) to children ages 5 and under in parallel to oral polio vaccine (OPV) administration as part of a WHO-recommended strategy to boost humoral and mucosal immunity.
Poliovirus has been eliminated in most parts of the world due to widespread vaccination campaigns, but it continues to circulate in Afghanistan and Pakistan. In 2024, wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) transmission rose significantly in Afghanistan. The use of Tropis ID enables site-to-site immunization, a strategy where vaccination services are offered at multiple, convenient locations.
This approach is expected to help increase immunization coverage, particularly in high-risk areas. The Technical Advisory Group (TAG) on polio eradication endorsed the Afghanistan program’s “Strategic Reset” to optimize site-to-site vaccination, while stressing the need for stronger leadership, community acceptance, and broad government engagement. Including Tropis ID fIPV in this immunization program supports Afghanistan’s polio eradication goals to eliminate persistent virus lineages in the East, prevent new WPV1 cases in the East and South Regions, and prevent local transmission in other parts of the country.1
“We are pleased to be partnering with UNICEF, WHO, and NEOC Afghanistan in their continued efforts to eradicate polio,” said Paul LaBarre, Senior Vice President Global Business Development, PharmaJet. “We aim to achieve high impact in the fight against poliovirus, including increased coverage, decreased costs, and high acceptability2 previously seen with Tropis ID delivered fIPV in Pakistan,2 Somalia,3 and Nigeria4.”
About PharmaJet:
The PharmaJet mission is to improve the performance and outcomes of injectables with our enabling technology that better activates the immune system. We are committed to helping our partners realize their research and commercialization goals while making an impact on public health. PharmaJet Precision Delivery Systems™ can improve vaccine effectiveness, allow for a preferred patient and caregiver experience, and offer a proven path to commercialization. They are also safe, fast, and easy-to-use. The Stratis® System has U.S. FDA 510(k) marketing clearance, CE Mark, and WHO PQS certification to deliver medications and vaccines either intramuscularly or subcutaneously. The Tropis® System has CE Mark and WHO PQS certification for intradermal injections. They are both commercially available for global immunization programs. For more information or if you are interested in partnering with PharmaJet visit https://pharmajet.com or contact PharmaJet here. Follow us on LinkedIn.
About the NEOC Afghanistan:
NEOC Afghanistan is led by the Ministry of Public Health and the core members are WHO, UNICEF, BMGF, CDC, Rotary International, Core Group of Polio Project (CGPP), EPI manager and the National Polio Focal Point.
About the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI)5
The Global Polio Eradication Initiative is a public-private partnership led by national governments with six partners – the World Health Organization (WHO), Rotary International, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Gates Foundation and Gavi, the vaccine alliance. Its goal is to eradicate polio worldwide.
Launched in 1988 after the World Health Assembly passed a resolution to eradicate polio, the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, along with its partners, has helped countries to make huge progress in protecting the global population from this debilitating disease. As a result, the global incidence of polio has decreased by 99.9% since GPEI’s foundation. An estimated 20 million people today are walking who would otherwise have been paralyzed by the disease, and more than 1.5 million people are alive, whose lives would otherwise have been lost. Now the task remains to tackle polio in its last few strongholds and get rid of the final 0.1% of polio cases including the two remaining endemic countries: Pakistan and Afghanistan.