Project Optimize, a World Health Organization and PATH collaboration, is working to enable immunization programs to take advantage of the true stability of vaccines by labeling them for use at ambient temperatures in a controlled temperature chain for limited periods of time as appropriate to the stability of the antigen.

Publication date: July 2012

Region: Global

Part of the Technology Updates series, this fact sheet describes PATH's approach to technologies for oral delivery of vaccines.

Publication date: April 2012

Region: Global

Part of series: Technology Updates

This website about PATH’s Technology Solutions global program provides an overview of the program and its featured projects. See other PATH program websites.

Publication date: 2013

Region: Global

Part of series: PATH's program websites

In collaboration with the Albanian Ministry of Health, project Optimize has installed a short message service–based system that monitors and logs temperature conditions in peripheral cold chain equipment. The team aims to assess the benefits of remote alarm systems over nonconnected temperature loggers.

Publication date: July 2012

Region: Global

Both Iran and Sudan utilize an alarm-based temperature recording system to monitor the performance of their national immunization cold stores. To better the utility and application of such systems in other countries, this project Optimize report documents the benefits, challenges, and advantages of both Iran’s and Sudan’s systems.

Author: Haghgou, M

Publication date: May 2010

Region: Global

This fact sheet from the Global Health Technologies Coalition examines how US leadership in global health research helps to saves lives worldwide and provides domestic economic benefits.

Publication date: March 2011

Region: North America and Europe

This document describes how project Optimize and the Tunisian Ministry of Public Health are collaborating to explore new logistics and supply chain solutions that can optimize the vaccine supply chain.

Publication date: July 2012

Region: Africa

Keeping heat-sensitive vaccines at the right temperature is crucial yet often difficult in areas with limited or no electrical power. Project Optimize collaborated with the Vietnam National Expanded Programme on Immunization to evaluate two technologies to respond to this challenge. One was a direct-drive solar refrigerator and the other a passive cooling device. This brief describes the lessons learned from the demonstration—information which can be used by other country programs considering these devices for long-term storage of vaccines.

Publication date: January 2013

Region: Asia

This project Optimize study is a compilation of the literature available on the use of vaccines outside of the cold chain. Most of the studies analyzed in this review focus on hepatitis B, with one exception—a study examining meningococcal C vaccine.

Author: Villadiego S

Publication date: August 2008

Region: Global

Author: Nelson C; Widjaya A; Wittet S

Publication date: 2002

Region: Global

Part of series: CVP Occasional Papers

Project Optimize, a collaboration between the World Health Organization and PATH, assessed the cost implications of leveraging a regional distribution center for the international transportation of vaccines. This report outlines the economic issues that need to be addressed for such a solution to be acceptable to country decision-makers, vaccine manufacturers, and private-sector warehouse and distribution companies.

Publication date: December 2011

Region: Global

PATH’s Vaccine Resource Library (VRL) seeks to gather the world’s best immunization resources in a single, easy-to-use website. The VRL offers a wide variety of high-quality, scientifically accurate documents and links on specific diseases and topics in immunization. It is geared for health professionals in the developing and industrialized worlds, as well as for journalists, policymakers, community leaders, parents, and others interested in vaccine-related resources. The resources found on the VRL are collected from a variety of sources, including news media, scientific journals, and leaders in public health.

Publication date: 2013

Region: Global

Part of series: Websites

Part of the Technology Updates series, this fact sheet describes PATH's work on vaccine stabilization, including the development of a method to protect vaccines containing an aluminum adjuvant from freeze damage, the identification of a technology to improve the heat stability of certain vaccines, and the improvement of vaccine stability through reformulation involving glass-forming sugars plus other excipients and processing via spray drying.

Publication date: May 2012

Region: Global

Part of series: Technology Updates

PATH and our partners have been advancing innovative vaccine technologies for more than 30 years. This report outlines our approach and capabilities. It also describes a number of individual vaccine technologies at various stages of development and market introduction to put this work in context. 

Publication date: September 2010

Region: Global

Commissioned by project Optimize, a collaboration of PATH and the World Health Organization, a study of vaccine vial monitor (VVM) availability and use in developing countries in four regions was undertaken. The study had three aspects: the total proportion of vaccines with VVMs in the regions with detailed information by country, in-depth information on policies and practices, and knowledge and attitudes in a selected sample of countries.

Author: Milstein J

Publication date: August 2010

Region: Global

Vaccine vial monitors (VVMs) are small stickers that adhere to vaccine vials and change color as the vaccine is exposed to heat, letting health workers know whether the vaccine can be safely used for immunization. This fact sheet answers the most frequently asked questions regarding VVMs.

Publication date: January 2011

Region: Global

Part of the Technology Updates series, this fact sheet describes PATH's work on the Uniject™ injection system for use with vaccines.

Publication date: April 2012

Region: Global

Part of series: Technology Updates

This document describes how project Optimize is collaborating with Vietnam’s National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology to demonstrate innovations in the supply chain that can help to meet the demands of an increasingly large and costly portfolio of vaccines.

Publication date: July 2012

Region: Asia

In Vietnam, project Optimize worked with government and software partners to help introduce a digital immunization registry. This brief describes how the registry allowed the health system to better track children due for vaccination and shortened the time required for recording and reporting immunizations compared to the existing paper-based registry.

Publication date: January 2013

Region: Asia

PATH commissioned this report in an effort to evaluate whether dose-sparing, possibly through the intradermal (ID) route, could improve the availability of yellow fever vaccine globally. The authors identify and discuss potential benefits, possible obstacles, and associated costs of dose-sparing as a vaccine delivery strategy. In addition, the report includes an assessment of which settings would be most appropriate and to what extent novel ID delivery devices, such as needle-free disposable-syringe jet injectors, would help to facilitate its successful implementation.

Author: Hickling J, Jones R

Publication date: April 2013

Region: Global