UK scientists trial first fridge-free vaccine in 60 patients
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- Stablepharma trialled a fridge-free tetanus-diphtheria vaccine in 60 UK volunteers, converting the liquid shot into a dry powder stabilized with trehalose — a sugar borrowed from "resurrection plants" — and storing it at room temperature for a year before reconstituting with water.
- WHO estimates roughly half of all vaccines globally are wasted each year, with failures in the strict cold-chain storage and transport system named as a major driver alongside expired stock and unused multi-dose vials.
- Prof Saul Faust, director of the NIHR Clinical Research Facility in Southampton, reported the fridge-free version produced "equivalent" immune responses to the conventional vaccine and was "safe and well tolerated" in early-stage studies.
- A 160-person follow-up trial is scheduled to begin in the coming months as the final research stage — the underlying tetanus-diphtheria vaccine is already licensed, sidestepping the lengthy efficacy trials required for novel vaccines.
- The vaccine components separately survived temperature cycling between -20°C and +40°C, suggesting doses could remain viable after transport in a cold aircraft hold followed by a hot truck bed.
- The trehalose method cannot stabilize mRNA vaccines, but could be applied to many existing vaccines and to some medicines such as monoclonal antibodies that currently require refrigeration.
- Findings were published in eClinicalMedicine (part of the Lancet group) and target the WHO's stated goal of a vaccine that survives at 30°C and 75% relative humidity.
Why it matters: Because the underlying tetanus-diphtheria vaccine is already licensed, Stablepharma only needs a 160-person confirmatory trial — not the multi-year novel-vaccine pathway — to clear WHO's 30°C stability target. Remote and conflict-zone clinics stand to gain most: WHO attributes roughly half of global vaccine wastage to cold-chain failures that this trehalose-stabilized dry powder is designed to eliminate.
