Vaccine and Pharmaceutical Technologies News and Updates provides semiannual briefings on PATH’s work to advance innovative technologies that help to improve vaccine and pharmaceutical products and the way they are delivered, especially in remote settings with limited access to health facilities and refrigeration equipment.

Publication date: 2014

Region: Global

Part of series: E-newsletters

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

Publication date: 2014

Region: Global

Part of series: Program websites

This banner and these handouts serve as resources for a vaccine presentation game in the project Optimize traveling exhibit—an exhibit featuring supply chain innovations being developed and tested in different countries around the world. The banner illustrates that while vaccine price is a big part of the total cost, there are many other important costs associated with each type of vaccine presentation that are less obvious, including costs for shipping, cold chain maintenance, and training.

Publication date: August 2013

Region: Global

Part of series: Supply Systems for Today and Tomorrow: Project Optimize traveling exhibit

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: 2014

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

Between 2009 and 2012, technical staff from project Optimize, a collaboration between PATH and the World Health Organization, worked to develop costing methodology and create an accompanying Microsoft Excel-based costing tool to help estimate the cost of the vaccine supply chain in Senegal and Vietnam. This report documents the methodology used to develop the costing tool.

Publication date: September 2013

Region: Global

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

Part of the Technology Updates series, this fact sheet describes PATH's work on vaccine vial monitors.

Publication date: February 2014

Region: Global

Part of series: Technology Updates

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

Ukraine project descriptions

Author: Bishop A

Publication date: 2005

Region: Eastern Europe

Vaccines for the Future provides quarterly updates on our efforts to accelerate the development of innovative, safe, effective, and affordable vaccines against pneumonia (pneumococcal disease) and diarrheal disease (rotavirus, Shigella, enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli), as well as new vaccines for the global population against influenza, meningitis, polio, and respiratory syncytial virus. It includes updates on our progress, partnerships, and specific activities related to these projects.

Publication date: 2014

Region: Global

Part of series: E-newsletters

This fact sheet provides an overview of PATH's work in developing fast-dissolving tablet vaccine formulations manufactured using a standard lyophilization process. The tablets are packaged in unit-dose blisters, offering an inexpensive, scalable, and easy-to-use presentation for live attenuated vaccines containing single or multiple bacterial strains. Further, the stackable design may minimize product volume and thus the space required for storage and transport, resulting in significant savings for health systems and cold chains.

Publication date: March 2012

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: August 2013

Region: Global

Part of series: Technology Updates

This document assesses the correspondence between retinol and retinol-binding protein (RBP), as well as the stability of RBP subjected to varying temperature conditions over time, the effect of light, and the feasibility of using dried blood spots. The assessment is part of a larger project examining the use of the RBP enzyme immunoassay (RBP-EIA) to test for vitamin A deficiency.

Publication date: 2006

Region: Africa

This document shares data from Guinea-Bissau that provide validation of the retinol-binding protein enzyme immunoassay (RBP-EIA) test from serum samples, while also providing initial data on the feasibility of using dried blood samples as a specimen type for the assessment of vitamin A deficiency in the field.

Publication date: 2006

Region: Africa

This manual provides a suggested standardized methodology for implementing the Vesikari Clinical Severity Scoring System across rotavirus vaccine studies. It provides details on scoring system parameters, identifies implementation challenges, and presents instructions for collecting symptom information and using the accompanying template Case Report Form and diary cards.

Author: Lewis K

Publication date: May 2011

Region: Global

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

Publication date: 2014

Region: Asia

Part of series: Program websites

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