Fridge-free vaccine shows promise for reaching millions more people worldwide (news-medical.net)

The world-first trial of a fridge-free tetanus-diphtheria vaccine at University Hospital Southampton (UHS) has produced encouraging results that could improve access worldwide to crucial treatments. Around half of vaccines are wasted globally each year, according to the World Health Organization. Millions of vaccine doses are lost because of temperature changes during storage and transport. Fridge-free vaccines have the potential to transform vaccine delivery by reducing this dependence on refrigeration. This would improve access in more isolated communities and cut the environmental impact by reducing vast amounts of energy that lead to emissions. The phase I study found the vaccine was well tolerated, with no vaccine-related serious adverse events. Results have been published today in The Lancet group’s eClinicalMedicine. The reformulated vaccine, known as SPVX02, was developed by UK-based biotech company Stablepharma using its StablevaX technology. The trial took place in the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Clinical Research Facility at UHS and was delivered through the NIHR Biomedical Research Centre: Southampton. Professor Saul Faust, UHS consultant pediatrician and director of the NIHR Clinical Research Facility, who led the study, said: “Keeping vaccines cold from the factory to the patient is one of the biggest challenges facing immunization...