Introduction: There is a need for investment in manufacturing for vaccine microarray patches (vMAPs) to accelerate vMAP development and access. vMAPs could transform vaccines deployment and reach to everyone, everywhere.
Areas covered: We outline vMAPs' potential benefits for epidemic preparedness and for outreach in low- and lower-middle-income countries (LMICs), share lessons learned from pandemic response, and highlight that investment in manufacturing-at-risk could accelerate vMAP development.
Expert opinion: Pilot manufacturing capabilities are needed to produce clinical trial material and enable emergency response. Funding vMAP manufacturing scale-up in parallel to clinical proof-of-concept studies could accelerate vMAP approval and availability. Incentives could mitigate the risks of establishing multi-vMAP manufacturing facilities early.
Keywords: De-risking strategies; Microarray patches; coverage and equity; microneedle patches; pandemic preparedness; pilot manufacturing facilities; product development; vaccine delivery; vaccine development incentives; vaccine manufacturing.