With support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, InDevR is seeking to improve potency testing for its VaxArray platform in regards to measles and rubella vaccines.
The result, they hope, will be a quicker delivery of vaccines to market and lower production costs, which has proven to be the case for VaxArray’s inaugural goal that focused on influenza vaccines. It is an effort to accurately measure vaccine potency, so producers will know the best amount of the active ingredient to include. Failing to do so can create less than potent vaccines, providing little to no protection for patients, while over-filling can cause health safety issues.
“There is no doubt that measles and rubella vaccines will remain cornerstones of pediatric immunization programs in both developed and developing countries,” Dr. Klaus Stohr, former head of Global Public Policy at Novartis Vaccines, said. “VaxArray has the potential to reduce production cost and could become an important addition to increasing the availability of these life-saving vaccines worldwide.”
Current biological tests can take as much as two weeks to complete for measuring MR vaccine potency. The VaxArray platform proposes to do it in two hours. The potential difference between the pair could result in weeks and months knocked off-market production and delivery timeframes.