New thin film technology to revolutionize vaccine storage and distribution

Up to 500 doses of vaccine to be placed on a single wafer-thin and stored for extended periods of time.

The first-of-its-kind technology enables up to 500 doses of vaccine to be placed on a single wafer-thin, 8.5" x 11" sheet of film, weighing one-hundredth of a pound (5 g).

Known as MSI-TX Thin Film, the technology represents a fundamental shift in biologic packaging and storage technology that removes the need for specialized storage containers and -80 ºC (-140 ºF) freezers that today are required to ship and store biologics.

MSI-TX Thin Film also removes the dependency on mass quantities of glass vials (currently in short supply) and removes virtually all distribution limitations.

The technology is a proprietary surfactant-stabilized cellulose matrix material, first published in 2015 by Maria Croyle, RPh, PhD, and her laboratory at the University of Texas College of Pharmacy, in Austin, TX.

The film itself, as well as the transfer and reconstitution process, have been thoroughly tested and are now ready for commercial use. This research advancement spurred the formation of Jurata Thin Film, headquartered in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, with research & development taking place in Austin, Texas.

"This is truly groundbreaking technology that can fill a critical need to meet the packaging and distribution challenges for COVID-19 vaccines," said Dr Croyle.

"8,000 uncut sheets of MSI-TX Thin Film can hold more than four million vaccine doses, can be distributed in envelopes through standard shipping methods to anywhere in the world and stored in a two-drawer file cabinet under a desk. Using current technology, this same amount of vaccine would require a 20-foot temperature-controlled container at either -20 °C (-4 °F) or -70 °C (-94 °F) to keep the vaccine viable."