Producing low-cost drugs & vaccines on-site: new research from U of T, Harvard, MIT and U of O

ullahnor — Thu, 22 Sep 2016 17:08:44 +0000

ullahnor Thu, 09/22/2016 - 13:08

Cutline

The portable biomolecular manufacturing system can produce a broad range of biomolecules, including vaccines, antimicrobial peptides and antibody conjugates, without power or refrigeration (Wyss Institute at Harvard University)

Jef Ekins

Author legacy

Jef Ekins

Topic

Breaking Research

Research & Innovation

Pharmacy

Keith Pardee

Drugs

Subheadline

Research team has developed a portable drug-manufacturing system that can be used anywhere in the world

As much as 80 per cent of the cost of bringing vaccines to the developing world comes from ensuring that the medications are properly refrigerated and transported.

A team of researchers from the ��Ƶ, MIT, Harvard, and the University of Ottawa have developed a new portable drug-manufacturing system that uses two sets of freeze-dried pellets, which when mixed with water, are able to produce medications, vaccines and diagnostic tools virtually anywhere in the world.

(courtesy of Wyss Institute at Harvard University)

The team published a proof-of-principle paper in Cell that details the development of a drug manufacturing system that's able to produce on-site, on-demand therapeutics and biomolecules.

“In essence, it’s like having a portable pharmacy that you can use to create the medications you need,” said Assistant Professor Keith Pardee of U of T’s Faculty of Pharmacy, co-lead author of the paper.

Most vaccines need to maintain a consistent temperature to prevent spoilage and maintain their efficacy, which necessitates a cold chain from production to application.

Despite these precautions and the attention paid to their transportation, the World Health Organization and United Nations Children’s Fund estimate that the amount of essential vaccines that end up wasted could be as high as 50 per cent.

The first of the freeze-dried pellets, developed by the researchers in 2014, is an innovative cell-free synthetic biology “machinery” that provides the manufacturing infrastructure to create an end product.

The second pellet consists of DNA instructions that tell the manufacturing piece what compound to produce. This pellet can be customized to generate a variety of products, including vaccines, anti-cancer antibodies, and diagnostic tools.

When the two freeze-dried pellets are combined with water, the production process begins.

Keith Pardee

Producing low-cost drugs & vaccines on-site: new research from U of T, Harvard, MIT and U of O

Read more about the team's earlier research on a low-cost Zika virus detection system