WHO and UNICEF to Launch Polio Vaccination Campaign in Afghanistan with PharmaJet® Tropis® ID Delivery System

August 19, 2025 at 10:10 AM EDT

PharmaJet has been awarded a UNICEF tender to support WHO and Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) partners.
This is the first large-scale implementation of intradermal (ID) polio immunization in Afghanistan.
PharmaJet’s award builds on the successful implementation of Tropis for ID delivery in polio vaccination campaigns in Pakistan, Nigeria, and Somalia.
The use of Tropis ID in polio vaccination campaigns has improved vaccine coverage, decreased immunization program costs, and increased acceptability.

PharmaJet^®, a company that strives to improve the performance and outcomes of injectables with its enabling needle-free injection technology, today 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.

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Tropis, previously used for numerous IPV campaigns in Pakistan, has now been adopted as a strategic tool for achieving GPEI goals in Afghanistan.

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 acceptability²previously seen with Tropis ID delivered fIPV in Pakistan,² Somalia,³ and Nigeria⁴.”

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¹World Health Organization, Global Polio Eradication Initiative, Technical Advisory Group urges strong action to eradicate polio in Afghanistan, February 26, 2025

²Daly, C et al, Needle-free injectors for mass administration of fractional dose inactivated poliovirus vaccine (fIPV) in Karachi, Pakistan: A survey of caregiver and vaccinator acceptability, Vaccine, Volume 38 Issue 8, 18 February, 2020, Pages 1893-1898

³Nouh, K et al, Use of a fractional dose of inactivated polio vaccine (fIPV) to increase IPV coverage among children under 5 years of age in Somalia, Springer Nature Volume 2 article number 16 (2024)

⁴Biya, O et al, Notes from the Field: House-to-House Campaign Administration of Inactivated Poliovirus Vaccine — Sokoto State, Nigeria, November 2022, CDC Morbidity and Mortality Weekly report, November 24, 2023 / 72(47);1290–1291

⁵ Global Polio Eradication Initiative, who we are: https://polioeradication.org/who-we-are/

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.