The challenge:
The majority of vaccines must be stored at low temperatures, necessitating a "cold chain" system, which is expensive and limits global vaccination efforts. Those limitations vary from costs of transportation to storage to feasibility of delivery in absence of infrastructure to efficacy of vaccination when degraded.
Vaccines stand out as one of the top public health strategies to decrease both the occurrence and severity of infectious diseases.
For most vaccines to maintain their safety and efficacy, they need to be stored and transported within a "cold chain," a system where they are consistently kept below certain temperatures, sometimes reaching as low as -80°C. This requirement for cold storage makes it difficult and costly to distribute vaccines quickly and efficiently, particularly in Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs). These regions often lack the infrastructure to maintain and transport vaccines at the necessary low temperatures to distant or isolated communities. This has led to inadequate immunization levels in LMICs and the persistence of vaccine-preventable diseases. Moreover, the cold chain requirements have significantly slowed down the widespread and quick deployment of vaccines in situations like the COVID-19 pandemic, where the need for cold storage has notably increased the costs and logistical challenges of vaccine distribution. In fact, cold chain logistics are responsible for up to 80% of the expenses associated with vaccine programs.
Furthermore many diseases could have been potentially already been eradicated if only the efficacy in transport, storage and distribution with its relative costs would implemented. The key to eradication of many pathogen related diseases is in this gap.
Thus, pushes the society and the scientific community to strive towards new solutions about such important matter, especially in light of potential new pandemic rising and unknown pathological weapons too.
To tackle such problem we have developed a new formulation matrix deriving from the waste wood industry capable or being neutral and already FDA approved to micro encapsulated vaccines from viral based vaccines to mRNA Lipid Nanoparticle Vaccines to ensure long lasting efficacy in different stress conditions like time away from cold chain storage for weeks at different possible high temperatures.
If our project would be successful we would be able to :
- use a green sustainable compound to tackle the issue of vaccines storage and transport,
- eradicate infective diseases in areas where normally vaccines are not effective,
- created a potential storage advantages for vaccinations lowering prices about 80% of their original cost,
- create new market for developing natural biopolymer serving as cryo-preservant not only for vaccines but for other active compounds and biologicals
- create a new technology for the health and national defence in case of biohazard pathogenic threads
