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One of his big concerns is inertia — a lot of money, time and logistics have been invested in maintaining so-called “cold chain” systems around the world, and this technology is a potential disruption to that.

When you take that vaccine from the refrigerator, you really don’t know what happened to that vial before you got there

There will also be regulatory hurdles to get through, although Filipe expects the process to be relatively smooth. The sugars were chosen in part because they are already approved by Health Canada and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and the process uses existing vaccines with well-established safety and efficacy.

The existing vaccines, though, are extremely fragile. Many need to be stored in a very cold freezer, and can only be held at fridge temperature (2 to 8 C) for a few days, during which time the countdown is on to get the medicine to the end user.

Any screw-ups or delays along the way will break the cold chain, rendering the medicine useless and vulnerable people unprotected, especially in rural, remote, and conflict-affected areas.

A simplified process, where a film could be dropped into a vial of saline, shaken for five seconds, and then injected, could help save lives and money, Filipe said.

Testing it with the vaccine against measles, which is back with a vengeance worldwide, is an especially urgent priority. Among the many outbreaks ongoing, the worst are in Madagascar, where 84,765 people were infected between October 2018 and March 2019, according to the WHO, as well as Ukraine (56,094), and India (19,544), which Filipe has visited many times.

“The power goes out very frequently. When you take that vaccine from the refrigerator, you really don’t know what happened to that vial before you got there,” he said.

“You can be using the cold chain, but also use this additional level of safety.”

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