Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2021 Apr 9;22(3):126.
doi: 10.1208/s12249-021-01974-3.

Next-Generation COVID-19 Vaccines Should Take Efficiency of Distribution into Consideration

Khaled AboulFotouh  1   2 , Zhengrong Cui  3 , Robert O Williams 3rd  4
Affiliations

Next-Generation COVID-19 Vaccines Should Take Efficiency of Distribution into Consideration

Khaled AboulFotouh et al. AAPS PharmSciTech. .

Abstract

The dire need for safe and effective coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccines is met with many vaccine candidates being evaluated in pre-clinical and clinical studies. The COVID-19 vaccine candidates currently in phase 3 or phase 2/3 clinical trials as well as those that recently received emergency use authorization (EUA) from the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and/or other regulatory agencies worldwide require either cold (i.e., 2-8°C) or even freezing temperatures as low as -70°C for storage and distribution. Thus, existing cold chain will struggle to support both the standard national immunization programs and COVID-19 vaccination. The requirement for cold chain is now a major challenge towards worldwide rapid mass vaccination against COVID-19. In this commentary, we stress that thermostabilizing technologies are available to enable cold chain-free vaccine storage and distribution, as well as potential needle-free vaccination. Significant efforts on thermostabilizing technologies must now be applied on next-generation COVID-19 vaccines for more cost-effective worldwide mass vaccination and COVID-19 eradication.

Keywords: Cold chain; Dry powder; SARS-CoV-2; Thermostability; Vaccine.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

ZC and ROW declare conflict of interest with TFF Pharmaceuticals, Inc, which has been reviewed and approved by UT Austin in accordance with its policy on objectivity in research.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Expected long-term storage temperatures and shelf-lives of various COVID-19 vaccine candidates in Phase 3 or Phase 2/3 clinical trials. Thermostable vaccines can be developed via the inclusion of thermostabilizing technology or the transformation of liquid vaccines into dry powders
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Machhi J, Herskovitz J, Senan AM, Dutta D, Nath B, Oleynikov MD, Blomberg WR, Meigs DD, Hasan M, Patel M, Kline P, Chang RCC, Chang L, Gendelman HE, Kevadiya BD. The natural history, pathobiology, and clinical manifestations of SARS-CoV-2 infections. J NeuroImmune Pharmacol. 2020;15(3):359–386. doi: 10.1007/s11481-020-09944-5. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Sultan S, Lim JK, Altayar O, Davitkov P, Feuerstein JD, Siddique SM, et al. AGA rapid recommendations for gastrointestinal procedures during the COVID-19 pandemic. Gastroenterology. 2020;159(2):739–58.e4. doi: 10.1053/j.gastro.2020.03.072. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Al-Qahtani AA. Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2): emergence, history, basic and clinical aspects. Saudi J Biol Sci. 2020;27:2531–2538. doi: 10.1016/j.sjbs.2020.04.033. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Abbott TR, Dhamdhere G, Liu Y, Lin X, Goudy L, Zeng L, et al. Development of CRISPR as an antiviral strategy to combat SARS-CoV-2 and influenza. Cell. 2020;181(4):865–76.e12. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2020.04.020. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Wang C, Li W, Drabek D, Okba NMA, van Haperen R, Osterhaus A, et al. A human monoclonal antibody blocking SARS-CoV-2 infection. Nat Commun. 2020;11(1):2251. doi: 10.1038/s41467-020-16256-y. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

Substances