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Polar Thermal Blood Plasma and Platelet Bag featured on the BBC 10 o’clock news – helping the NHS find workable solutions for coronavirus and Covid 19.
Polar Thermal Blood Plasma and Platelet Bag featured on the BBC 10 o’clock news – helping the NHS find workable solutions for coronavirus and Covid 19.
Polar Thermal Packaging go back a long way: collaboration on Clinical Trials has been made a valuable contribution to the Research & Development Department at Polar.
Pfizer Global Research & Development contracted Polar Thermal as the lead in cold chain package development and manufacturing. The trial was expanded to cover UK, Netherlands and the US over a 65 week period – Polar had responsibility for cold chain packaging solutions supporting clinical supply and day to day distribution activities from drug product stage through delivery to clinical site or to a subject’s residence.
Through our efforts it was possible to supply clinical sites and dispense to 84,500 subjects at over 122 locations throughout Netherlands. A small part of Capita (2,000 subjects) was the Subset study that dispensed vaccines to subjects at their residence.
Ray Goff Jr., Director Vaccines R&D at Pfizer, said: “as a key member of the Capita Partner and Logistics Team, the Polar team implemented remarkable solutions in cold chain packaging and clinical supply carriers in the face of major risks. Your collaboration with the Capita teams to identify potential risks, encountered numerous significant obstacles and you overcame these obstacles through creative problem-solving and risk mitigation.”
One example of a major risk encountered and solved was in the beginning of Capita enrolment when the Partner team determined that the ferry system from UK to France was safer than the channel tunnel during the 9/11 timeframe. While Capita vaccine supplies travelled in a van on a ferry crossing from UK to Calais an explosion occurred in the freight tunnel of the channel tunnel complex.
Normally the freight tunnel is the preferred route to cross the channel. The damage, expected to be cleared in 2-3 weeks, became a 6 month closure. The Partner’s team had already implemented the alternate plans to address this high risk area savings hundreds of thousands of Euros and avoided precious delays to the study. This is one of many actions of risk management performed by Capita Partner Team which delivered outstanding results.
At a time when clinical trials are very much in the news it is good to know that Polar Thermal have both the tools and the management to see critical projects through. You can read Pfizer’s Report of this mega-trial here – CLICK FOR MORE
Eugene Cooke, National Head of Procurement NHSBT, today signed a two year extension to the framework agreement NHSBT0485 with Polar Thermal Packaging’s Managing Director, Paul Harrison.
Paul said “we have always valued the NHS as a customer, but in recent months the importance of our relationship has really sunk in so we are absolutely delighted to be doing our bit. To see our Blood, Plasma and Vaccine Thermal Transport solutions being used daily by the NHS, the life science businesses and research universities is fantastic. The team in our Warminster factory has been working extra shifts, weekends and bank holidays to support the various vaccine research programmes and we are beginning to see some positive results.”
The framework agreement is signed by the NHS Blood and Transplant Service, but also covers all European Blood Alliance members making it possible for any of the 27 countries in Europe as well as the Australian National Blood Authority, Lifeblood Australia, Canadian Blood Services and the New Zealand Blood Service to avail of the special terms. All of the test data is also available to those member countries.
Today another 100 Blood Plasma Systems were finished by the team in the Warminster factory. Extra shifts were put on over the Bank Holiday to keep ahead of schedule.
Whilst Oxford Univesity is leading the way the US Food & Drug Administration (FDA) has issued guidance for trials of the process.
Already accepted in China the use of antibody-rich plasma has reportedly been very beneficial for many patients.
In the UK, thousands of recovered Covid-19 patients have volunteered to give plasma for the trials, and the collection and transport using Polar Thermal Blood Plasma Systems is being scaled up.
It is important to understand that this is not being put forward as a vaccine or cure, but there is significant hope that it may reduce the symptoms and slow down the effect of the virus.
The University of Oxford has today announced an agreement with the UK-based global biopharmaceutical company AstraZeneca for the further development, large-scale manufacture and potential distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine candidate currently being trialled by the University.
Polar Thermal Vaccine Transport Systems are used by both the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca, indeed Polar Thermal has been involved in one of the largest clinical trials of its kind. The company is scaling up and adjusting production schedules to support the initiative in any way that it can. Stock levels on most systems are good with a holding of the 600 Vaccine Shipper being made available for immediate delivery along with the 10, 20 and 30 litre systems in use daily with the NHS.
The partnership is to begin immediately with the final terms being agreed in the coming weeks. This will allow for rapid vaccination around the world if the COVID-19 vaccine candidate proves to be effective. The vaccine candidate was developed by the University’s Jenner Institute who began trials in humans last week jointly with the University’s Oxford Vaccine Group.
It is the first such partnership to be formed since the Government launched its dedicated Vaccines Taskforce to help find, test and deliver a new coronavirus vaccine just two weeks ago. It also comes alongside £20 million Government funding for Oxford University’s vaccine research and support for the institution’s clinical trials.
Under the new agreement, as well as providing UK access as early as possible if the vaccine candidate is successful, AstraZeneca will work with global partners on the international distribution of the vaccine, particularly working to make it available and accessible for low and medium income countries.
Both partners have agreed to operate on a not-for-profit basis for the duration of the coronavirus pandemic, with only the costs of production and distribution being covered. Oxford University and its spin-out company Vaccitech, who jointly have the rights to the platform technology used to develop the vaccine candidate, will receive no royalties from the vaccine during the pandemic. Any royalties the University subsequently receives from the vaccine will be reinvested directly back into medical research, including a new Pandemic Preparedness and Vaccine Research Centre. The centre is being developed in collaboration with AstraZeneca.
Professor Sir John Bell, Regius Professor of Medicine at Oxford University, said: “Our partnership with AstraZeneca will be a major force in the struggle against pandemics for many years to come. We believe that together we will be in a strong position to start immunising against coronavirus once we have an effective approved vaccine. Sadly, the risk of new pandemics will always be with us and the new research centre will enhance the world’s preparedness and our speed of reaction the next time we face such a challenge.”
The Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University, Professor Louise Richardson said: “Like my colleagues all across Oxford, I am deeply proud of the work of our extraordinarily talented team of academics in the Jenner Institute and the Oxford Vaccine Group. They represent the best tradition of research, teaching and contributing to the world around us, that has been the driving mission of the University of Oxford for centuries. Like people all across the country, we are wishing them success in developing an effective vaccine. If they are successful, our partnership with Astra Zeneca will ensure that the British people and people across the world, especially in low and middle income countries, will be protected from this terrible virus as quickly as possible.”
Business Secretary Alok Sharma said: “This collaboration between Oxford University and AstraZeneca is a vital step that could help rapidly advance the manufacture of a coronavirus vaccine. It will also ensure that should the vaccine being developed by Oxford University’s Jenner Institute work, it will be available as early as possible, helping to protect thousands of lives from this disease.”
Health Secretary Matt Hancock said: “Across government, we are working night and day to stop the spread of coronavirus and protect our NHS. But in the long run, a vaccine remains our best hope of defeating this virus for good. So I am determined to do everything in my power to develop an effective vaccine and get it to the people of the UK as soon as possible. I want the UK to lead the world in developing a coronavirus vaccine – and I will back our scientists to the hilt in doing so.”
Pascal Soriot, Chief Executive Officer, AstraZeneca, said: “As COVID-19 continues its grip on the world, the need for a vaccine to defeat the virus is urgent. This collaboration brings together University of Oxford’s world-class expertise in vaccinology and AstraZeneca’s global development, manufacturing and distribution capabilities. Our hope is that, by joining forces, we can accelerate the globalisation of a vaccine to combat the virus and protect people from the deadliest pandemic in a generation.”
Bill Enright, CEO of Vaccitech, said: “We are delighted to facilitate this extensive collaboration in support of the development of the vaccine candidate in order to make it available as quickly as possible. We believe this vaccine candidate provides significant validation for our ChAdOx platform, which is one of the few to have already induced neutralising antibodies against coronavirus spike proteins in human studies for MERS. We are committed to doing all we can to support our scientific founders at the Jenner Institute in order to overcome this unprecedented global crisis.”
Our factory is working extra shifts at the moment to complete one of our more complex systems that is used to safely transport Blood Plasma for the NHS – demand has increased as the programme to test the efficacy of using blood plasma from recovered coronavirus patients ramps up: more about the programme here: https://www.nhsbt.nhs.uk/news/coronavirus-update/