UT professor wants to turn COVID-19 vaccine into powder to help storage, distribution
AUSTIN, Texas — A University of Texas professor is part of COVID-19 vaccine research aimed to not only change how it’s administered, but to increase the vaccine’s shelf life in order to distribute it to areas without ultra-cold freezers.
University of Texas Pharmacy Professor Dr. Bill Williams is working with a technology called Thin Film Freezing from a company called TFF Pharmaceuticals. Through their research, they’ve developed a way to turn frozen vaccines into powder so it doesn't need to be stored in cold chambers and could also be administered in an alternative way.
“We flash freeze it. We have found that, that is what enables it then to be stabilized frozen then we remove the frozen water, the ice, by a process called sublimation. What we get is this powder that has really good properties then to maintain the stability of the vaccine and it could be then reconstituted injected or it can be inhaled,” said Dr. Williams.
Although the powder vaccine is still being researched, Dr. Williams said the shelf life of some power vaccines is six month at room temperature or three months at temperatures above 100 degrees.
Some COVID-19 vaccine makers need their version to be in temperatures so cold a kitchen freezer wouldn’t be able to store it.
The Pfizer vaccine filed for emergency use authorization with the FDA on November 20th – it need to be stored at -70 degrees Celsius.
Williams said the City of Austin has already asked UT about freezer storage space for certain COVID-19 vaccines.
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Due to confidentially agreement, Williams couldn’t share what drug companies he’s currently working with.
Williams said the powder is ideal for areas that have limited resources.
“We have the luxury of having an infrastructure here, I completely trust, it’s a burden, we can pay for it. You get outside the U.S. to less developed counties that don’t have this infrastructure they have a problem. A frozen vaccine isn’t going to work there,” he said.
Specifically, COVID vaccines in powder form haven’t yet been tested to measure its efficiency compared to the liquid vaccine but Williams said other vaccines “have seen no effect on the efficacy of the vaccine when we dosed to animals as a powder form.”
Williams said the interest from a variety of different pharma companies in the hunt for a COVID and Flu vaccines has been an “overwhelming response.”
“We’ve had a lot of interest in the research, and we’re pursuing that aggressively,” said Williams.
