The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has welcomed results showing a tetanus and diphtheria vaccine does not need to be refrigerated to stay effective. 

UKHSA said the “breakthrough” can help address “global challenges of distribution, storage, wastage, and CO2 emissions” related to medicines that usually would need to be kept cool from the manufacturers all the way to a patient being vaccinated.  

It worked with pharmaceutical company Stablepharma Ltd to test a fridge-free tetanus and diphtheria vaccine called SPVX02 in a phase one human trial at its Vaccine Development and Evaluation Centre (VDEC). 

The results showed the vaccine is effective without the need for refrigeration, having been trialled in long-term storage at 30°C for 24 months. 

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The VDEC lead Dr Bassam Hallis said the progress of fridge-free vaccines can help vaccine delivery and deployment, especially in areas globally where limited infrastructure makes the cold chain “more challenging”. 

This can be remote areas, the developing world, places affected by natural disasters, those in emergency situations, or countries with unreliable electricity supplies. 

The World Health Organization (WHO) said the cold chain – the part where vaccines are stored in fridges to stay effective – is usually a “major reason” for vaccine wastage as it estimates “half of all vaccines do not reach their intended recipients and cites” because the cold chain cannot be managed. 

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UKHSA said it’s a “significant step towards overcoming one of the major barriers to meeting immunisation targets across the world” and it will help simplify distribution and make immunisation programmes “more resilient”. 

Stablepharm chief operating officer Dr Karen O’Hanlon said fridge-free vaccines will offer “a clear path to a more equitable, resilient, and sustainable healthcare system” and is “a public health and climate solution”. 

“SPVX02 represents a practical step toward fridge-free vaccines and medicines that reach more people, with fewer supply-chain constraints and lower environmental impact,” she added. 

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NIHR Southampton Clinical Research Facility director Professor Saul Faust said the breakthrough “reinforces the leading role that the UK plays globally in vaccine research, development, deployment and evaluation”. 

The SPVX02 vaccine will undertake more clinical trials with larger numbers of participants to confirm the phase one results and compare it to other vaccines. 

It comes as pharmacies are facing “unprecedented” demand for meningitis vaccines amid an outbreak of the disease in Kent in the last week.