New Approaches to Stablilization of Vaccine Potency

Immunization is one of the most important tools in public health and, according to the World Bank, the most cost-effective intervention in medicine. Vaccines have to be developed, field-tested, licensed, produced, quality controlled, regulated, purchased, transported, stored and delivered. Vaccine stability is a crucial factor to ensure that the vaccine delivered to the child is safe and effective. This book reports the proceedings of an international conference organized by the International Association of Biological Standardization and representatives of WHO's Global Programme for Vaccines and Immunization to discuss technical and regulatory aspects of vaccine stability and ways to improve collaboration. Topics under consideration include vaccine transport and storage; problems with maintaining the cold chain, especially in developing countries; reasons for instability of existing vaccines, and recent developments in the design of viral, bacterial and parasite vaccines. The factors affecting vaccine stability are evaluated, and a large number of new approaches for vaccine stabilisation are presented. Comprehensive and up-to-date, this publication will be appreciated by anyone concerned with the development, production and distribution of vaccines.