Regulatory authorities have relaxed temperature controls on a
meningitis vaccine, allowing it to be transported for several
days without refrigeration, a move that could lower its price
for use in Africa. It is the first such approval for a vaccine
on the continent. MenAfriVac is made in India and used in 26
countries in Africa to protect against meningitis A. The Drug
Controller General of India and the WHO have now approved the
vaccine's supply in a controlled temperature chain at up to 40
degrees Celsius for as long as four days. Benin is the first
country to deploy the vaccine in a less stringent temperature
chain, in a pilot programme running from 15-25 November in the
north of the country. Manufacturing and delivering MenAfriVac
costs about 75 US cents per dose, and storing it outside a cold
supply chain could cut the price by about ten cents, says Michel
Zaffran, director of Optimize, a PATH-WHO collaboration to
improve vaccine technology and systems. "Some countries such as
Chad have a very poor cold