Science & Technology

Scientist develops drinkable vaccine in the form of a glass of beer

By T.K. Randall
February 11, 2026 ·  10 comments

Image: Mug of Beer (illustrative)
Credit: Steven Walling / CC BY-SA 4.0 (adapted) Those adverse to the thought of needles might soon be able to receive a vaccine dose simply by drinking it in the form of a glass of beer.

This remarkable development comes courtesy of virologist Chris Buck and colleagues at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) in Maryland where they have spent the last 15 years developing a polyomavirus vaccine.

Taking this one step further, their most recent achievement was to engineer a special strain of yeast that can be used to produce an ingestible vaccine in the form of beer.

Buck was so confident about his 'vaccine beer' that after testing it on mice, he proceeded to test it on not only himself, but also his own family.

The tests revealed that the beer actually seemed to work at delivering the vaccine.So could this really be the future of vaccine delivery ?

According to some researchers, there is reason to be cautious.

One critic - virologist Michael Imperiale of the University of Michigan Medical School - noted that the sample size is currently too small and the side effects of the vaccine beer remain unclear.

Even so, Buck thinks he is definitely onto something.

"This is the most important work of my whole career," he said.

"It's important enough to risk my career over."

Source: Unilad Tech | Comments (10)

Tags: Vaccine, Beer