Glaxo signs a £105m deal that seeks to end the pain of injections

The needle-phobe's nightmare may be over after GlaxoSmithKline today signed a £105 million joint venture that could see the end of the injected vaccine.

Britain's biggest drugmaker paid the cash for the rights to Austrian biotech Intercell's needle-free vaccine technology.

Glaxo claimed the patch-based vaccine is the most advanced in development, and could be submitted to the medicines watchdog by 2012.

If it received the regulator's green light, patients could then expect to steer clear of needles a year later.

The first treatments being developed with the patch technology include a pandemic flu vaccine - a version of which is currently being given to millions of Britons to prevent a swine flu outbreak - and another that inoculates against travellers' diarrhoea.

Glaxo is a giant in the vaccine world, raking in nearly £2.2 billion from the products in the third quarter of this year, more than 10% of its total turnover, and the drugmaker said it intends to use the patch technology for all of its vaccines.

Other vaccines in the firm's portfolio include Cervarix, the jab protecting against cervical cancer that the NHS has bought for all schoolgirls, and Rotarix, a vaccine against rotovirus.

The tetanus, whooping cough and polio vaccines offered to both children and adults is also made by the firm.

Jean Stephenne, president of Glaxo's vaccine division GSK Biologicals, said the technology had "real potential to change the way vaccines are delivered in the future".

He added: "GSK has an extensive portfolio of vaccines and we believe needle-free vaccination could offer benefits such as simplified administration and increased compliance."