PHA-Exchange> New vaccine system may save millions

[George Lessard]

New vaccine system may save millions
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   (21 oct 2004) Scientists claim to have found a new vaccine delivery 
mechanism that could reform immunisation programmes in the developing 
world.
http://www.oneworld.net/link/gotoarticle/addhit/96440/56/7014

Direct link (requires free registration)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/medicine/story/0,11381,1331280,00.html

[excerpt]

The system involves storing the active ingredients in solid 
microscopic sugar "beads".

If it works the technique should help end the annual loss of about 
half the vaccination packages to bacterial contamination or damage by 
extremes of temperature.

The beads, suspended in inert biochemical oils, are rehydrated and 
returned to life by body fluids when injected.

...

The first tests on humans will be conducted in India over a 
three-year period using a five-in-one jab against tetanus, 
diphtheria, whooping cough, hepatitis B and haemophilius influenza 
type B (Hib), which can cause meningitis.

The technique should work against most other infections too, 
according to its developers Cambridge Biostability, although the 
polio vaccine has proved impossible to crack

The company's scientists and advisers believed the system could save 
millions by eliminating the "cold chain", which costs up to $300m 
(£166m) a year, from the vaccine system, even though some vaccines 
may cost more to manufacture in this form

...

The Indian company Panacea Biotech in New Delhi is to manufacture the 
trial vaccines.