advanced search

<< Back To Home

Innovations in cold chain equipment for immunization supply chains

Monday, 3rd of April 2017

Abstract below; full text is at http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264410X17300129

Vaccine

Volume 35, Issue 17, 19 April 2017, Pages 2252–2259

Review

Innovations in cold chain equipment for immunization supply chains ^☆

• Joanie Robertson^a, , , 
• Lauren Franzel^b, , 
• Denis Maire^c, 
• ^a PATH, 2201 Westlake Avenue, Suite 200, Seattle, WA 98121, USA
• ^b Gavi, The Vaccine Alliance, Chemin des Mines 2, Geneva 1202, Switzerland
• ^c World Health Organization, Avenue Appia 20, Geneva 1211, Switzerland

Received 30 April 2016, Revised 22 October 2016, Accepted 5 November 2016, Available online 30 March 2017

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.vaccine.2016.11.094

Get rights and content

Under a Creative Commons license

  Open Access

Abstract

Background 

Since 2010, numerous new technologies have entered the immunization cold chain equipment market. The World Health Organization (WHO) Immunization Devices Programme—Performance, Quality and Safety (PQS)—has played a key role in bringing these to market. In this article, the authors explore the emergence of new cold chain equipment technologies from 2004 to 2016 and the role of PQS in this evolution.

Methods

This review focuses on three major vaccine cold chain technology innovations—solar direct-drive refrigerators, long-term passive cold boxes, and equipment with user-independent freeze prevention. For the review, we used online data from WHO PQS, a literature search, and unpublished research reports.

Results

Timelines with key milestones in the emergence of the three focus technologies show delays of between one and three years between earliest field trials and publication of WHO specifications; procurement builds after the WHO prequalification of initial devices.

Discussion

The timelines show the role of PQS as both gatekeeper and enabler for cold chain equipment technologies. The use of target product profiles by PQS has increased its ability to signal preferred attributes and to engage with manufacturers during the product-development stage. Procurement data show how demand for solar direct-drive refrigerators increased over time. Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, is employing demand-generation strategies to try to drive procurement of technologies with favorable technical attributes.

Conclusions

• PQS plays an important role in early product development.

• Target product profiles have proven to be a successful way to communicate desired attributes and focus developer research.

• Field evaluations provide PQS with invaluable data to help refine specifications in line with actual performance in immunization settings.

• Establishing more systematic post-market surveillance systems for cold chain equipment after large-scale deployment could have positive effects.

• Efforts to communicate to countries and other immunization stakeholders about new technologies is needed to accelerate their uptake.