A fridge-free vaccine cold chain solution inspired by drought-surviving plants has completed its first human trial safely and is now moving into a larger study, with Stablepharma anticipating a commercial launch as early as 2027.
The stakes behind that timeline are considerable. According to the World Health Organization, approximately 50% of all vaccines are wasted globally each year due to cold chain failures, as reported by Clinical Trials Arena. The cold chain is the strict sequence of temperature-controlled storage required from the moment a vaccine is produced to the point it is administered. Break that chain, and the dose is lost.
In high-income countries, cold chain failures are a logistical irritant. In rural parts of the Global South, where temperatures run high year-round, power supplies are intermittent and refrigeration is scarce, they are a matter of life and death.
What the resurrection plant revealed
The technology at the centre of this effort draws on an adaptation found in resurrection plants, species native to dry climates in Africa and South America that can appear completely lifeless for months before reviving when rain arrives. One mechanism behind that survival is the production of trehalose, a sugar that stabilises the plant’s cells during drought.
The National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) used trehalose to stabilise a previously liquid tetanus-diphtheria vaccine in powder form. In testing, the resulting powder remained stable and viable for a year without refrigeration. It also survived temperature cycling between -4°F and 104°F, the kind of range a vaccine shipment might actually encounter moving from an aircraft cargo hold to the back of a truck on a rural road. Reconstituted with water, it was ready to inject long after conventional liquid vaccines would have been discarded.
The fridge-free vaccine cold chain approach was then put to a 60-person human trial, run by Stablepharma as co-developer. The result: the powder formulation was found to be safe and well-tolerated, producing immune responses comparable to those from conventionally stored vaccines.
‘This obviously has potential to remove cold chain dependence, reduce wastage and improve access,’ said Professor Saul Faust, the director of the NIHR Clinical Research Facility in Southampton.
A larger trial under way and a pipeline of 60 candidates
The next phase is already in motion. According to Stablepharma, the first participant in the larger 160-person trial was dosed on 15 April 2025, with completion expected in Q3 2025. Because the tetanus-diphtheria vaccine used in the trial is already approved for human use, the regulatory path to commercialisation is shorter than it would be for a novel compound.
The commercial ambition extends well beyond a single product. Clinical Trials Arena reports that Stablepharma has identified up to 60 temperature-sensitive vaccines it believes could be reformulated into thermostable products using its StablevaX technology platform, removing their cold chain requirements entirely. The company anticipates launching the first commercial product, designated SPVX02, as early as 2027.
There are real boundaries to where the technology applies. BBC has reported that novel mRNA vaccines would not be candidates for this trehalose powder storage approach. More traditionally formulated vaccines would be, however, along with some medicines such as monoclonal antibodies that currently require refrigeration.
Those limits do not shrink the opportunity by much. A platform that could address even a fraction of the 60 candidate vaccines Stablepharma has catalogued, and cut into the roughly half of all vaccine doses lost to cold chain failures each year, would represent a substantial shift in how immunisation programmes operate in the parts of the world that need reliable vaccines most. The Q3 2025 trial completion date means the evidence needed to advance that case should be available before the year is out.
