Vaccine stability monitoring using the LifeTrack® electronic stability monitor

LifeTrack® technology enables the time-temperature stability profiles of even complex freeze-sensitive vaccines to be monitored in real time. Unlike freeze-resistant vaccines, freeze-sensitive vaccines do not obey a simple exponential Arrhenius law degradation equation. As a result, present vaccine stability indicators, such as Vaccine Vial Monitors (VVM), do not function adequately for these vaccines. LifeTrack electronic stability tags allow even a complex freeze-sensitive vaccine's fitness for use to be instantly evaluated by unsophisticated users with no knowledge of the vaccine, and with no special equipment. This novel electronic tag technology takes advantage of advances in low-cost microprocessors, batteries, and visual displays to compare a vaccine's real-life environmental history versus a sophisticated stability model, and continually determine if the vaccine's stability remains acceptable. This technology enables “at a glance” assessment of a vaccine's suitability and remaining lifetime, and also allows for more detailed supplemental statistical data to be obtained in order to determine exactly how and when stability failures occurred. This ability to allow users to visually detect deteriorated freeze-sensitive vaccines, coupled with an ability to determine exactly where in the supply chain unwanted levels of vaccine deterioration have occurred, could potentially bring an entirely new level of precision to vaccine supply chain management. The LifeTrack electronic stability monitoring tag may be a particularly useful tool to help address the present high rate of accidental freezing of freeze-sensitive vaccines in the cold chain.