Media Release: Revolutionary meningitis vaccine breaks another barrier; first to gain approval to travel outside cold chain
14 November 2012

The Meningitis Vaccine Project (MVP) –  a partnership between PATH and the WHO to eliminate epidemic meningitis as a public health problem in sub-Saharan Africa – announced at the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (ASTMH) conference that regulatory authorities, after conducting a rigorous review of stability data, will for the first time allow a vaccine in Africa to be transported and stored for as long as four days without refrigeration or even an icepack.” The vaccine involved is MenAfriVac, created to meet the needs of Africa’s meningitis belt, and the regulatory action means that the vaccine can now be kept in a controlled temperature chain (CTC) at temperatures of up to 40°C for up to four days, a decision that could help increase campaign efficiency and coverage and save funds normally spent maintaining the challenging cold chain during the “last mile” of vaccine delivery.

The outcome of the review and decisions of the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI), supported by a Health Canada analysis and confirmed by WHO Vaccines Pre-qualification Programme. Michel Zaffran, director of Optimize, the PATH-WHO collaboration aimed at improving immunization systems and technologies, said, “The potential for some vaccines to remain safely outside the cold chain for short periods of time has been widely known for over 20 years. But this is the first time that a vaccine intended for use in Africa has been tested and submitted to regulatory review and approved for this type of use. And we expect this announcement to build momentum for applying the CTC concept to other vaccines and initiatives, allowing us to save more lives in low-income countries.”

More at: http://www.who.int/immunization/newsroom/menafrivac_20121114/en/index.html