Terumo Launches New Intradermal Injection System
The new system has been designed to deliver vaccines and other drug products intradermally, which offers advantages over other forms of injectable administration.
Medical technology specialist, Terumo Corporation, has commercially launched its latest tool for intradermal injections of vaccines and other approved drug products, the Immucise Intradermal Injection System. The product launch was announced in a July 2, 2025 press release (1).
The new system has been designed to deliver vaccines and other approved drug products into the dermal layer of the skin via a vertical puncture type intradermal injection device that is applied to the deltoid region of the skin perpendicularly. With an outside diameter of 0.2 mm (33G), the 1.15 mm long needle can remain in the dermal layer during delivery of the drug product.
Injecting drug products into the dermis can be beneficial as this area is rich in resident and recruited types of dendritic cell that play an important role in the human immune response through capturing antigens and presenting them to T cells. Therefore, administering vaccines and other drug products intradermally can result in quantitatively or qualitatively superior immune responses when compared with intramuscular or subcutaneous administration (2).
Additionally, intradermal tissue contains lymphatic capillaries and has certain characteristics, meaning 10–100 nanometer particles are preferentially taken up into lymphatics (3). This preferential uptake leads to efficient accumulation of the drug products in the lymph nodes and, thus, improved vaccine or drug efficiency.
“Intradermal vaccination using the Immucise Intradermal Injection System offers many advantages to vaccine developers, including that it reduces the volume of vaccine used by sixty to eighty percent compared with intramuscular injection (4), is less costly, and has potential to mitigate vaccine shortages,” said Noritsugu Fujita, Division President, Terumo Pharmaceutical Solutions, in a company press release (1).
“To assess use of the device by healthcare professionals,” continued Sakiko Shimizu, Senior Principal Scientist, Terumo Corporation, in the company press release (1). “ID injection using the Immucise Intradermal Injection System was evaluated through a human factor study, which showed no observed usage errors. Effectiveness was also demonstrated with higher success rate of wheal, or bump, formation at the delivery site, and without any of the potential leakage associated with the Mantoux technique, the traditional method of intradermal injection (5–8).”
The injection system has already received the European Conformity mark and has been indicated for intradermal injection of FDA-approved drugs in the U.S. for infants aged two months (excluding low birth weight and/or preterm birth) to adults.
References
Terumo. Terumo Announces Commercial Launch of the Immucise Intradermal Injection System. Press Release, July 2, 2025.
PATH. Intradermal Delivery of Vaccines: A Review of the Literature and the Potential for Development for Use in Low- and Middle-Income Countries. Report, August 2009.
Bagby, T.R.; Cai, S.; Duan, S.; et al. Impact of Molecular Weight on Lymphatic Drainage of a Biopolymer-Based Imaging Agent. Pharmaceutics, 2012, 4 (2), 276–295.
WHO. Control of Neglected Tropical Diseases. WHO.int, accessed July 2, 2025.
Shimizu, S.; Tanaka, R.; Itoh, E.; Maekawa-Matsuura, M.; Iwase, Y. Performance and Usability Evaluation of Novel Intradermal Injection Device Immucise and Reanalysis of Intradermal Administration Trials of Influenza Vaccine for the Elderly. Vaccine, 2022, 40 (6), 873–879.
Arakane, R.; Nakatani, H.; Fujisaki, E.; et al. Immunogenicity and Safety of the New Intradermal Influenza Vaccine in Adults and Elderly: A Randomized Phase I/II Clinical Trial. Vaccine, 2015, 33 (46), 6340–6350.
Tarnow, K.; King, N. Intradermal Injections: Traditional Bevel Up Versus Bevel Down. Appl. Nurs. Res., 2004, 17 (4), 275–282.
Tsals, I. Usability Evaluation of Intradermal Adapters (IDA). Vaccine, 2017, 35 (14), 1797–1801.