The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 273 No 7325 p709
13 November 2004

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Technology could cut costs of vaccination programmes

New “stable liquid” technology could provide significant savings in the costs of immunisation programmes by removing the need for vaccines to be refrigerated.

Cambridge Biostability Ltd has developed a technique whereby vaccines are embedded in sugar beads or microspheres and suspended in an inert liquid where they can be stored indefinitely without refrigeration. After injection, the beads dissolve in bodily fluids to release the vaccine.

The company says that currently 50 per cent of all vaccines are wasted partly due to suspected or real temperature damage. It adds that within existing budgets savings from removing the “cold chain” alone will enable the vaccination of an extra 10 million children worldwide.

CBL has received a grant of £950,000 from the Department for International Development to develop a pentavalent vaccine (diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, haemophilus influenzae type b and hepatitis B) using this technique, in collaboration with Panacea Biotec, based in New Delhi.

This technology could also be used to develop slow release vaccines, by adapting the sugar to dissolve over time which may overcome the need for boosters.