A ‘warm’ COVID-19 vaccine suitable for remote and resource-limited locations lacking access to cold storage supply chains is one step closer following an international collaboration between scientists from India and Australia.
CSIRO, Australia’s national science agency, played an important role in evaluating heat-tolerant COVID-19 vaccine formulations developed by the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) and biotech start-up Mynvax – against all current SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern.
Published today in the peer-reviewed ACS Infectious Diseases journal, researchers showed the vaccine formulations triggered a strong immune response in mice, protected hamsters from the virus, and remained stable at 37°C up to a month and at 100°C for up to 90 minutes.
Most vaccines require refrigeration to remain effective, like Oxford-AstraZeneca which must be kept between 2-8°C and Pfizer which requires specialised cold storage at -70°C.
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ACS Infectious Diseases. Research Paper (Paywall):