GSK partners with Australian scientists to make cheaper pediatric vaccines

GlaxoSmithKline ($GSK) is teaming up with researchers from Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, to develop new manufacturing methods to make vaccines cheaper for children in the developing world. The news comes a month after Glaxo and Pfizer ($PFE) faced renewed pressure from Médecins Sans Frontières to reduce the prices of their pneumococcal vaccines. The company is working on applying blow-fill-seal technology for its oral vaccines, The Sydney Morning Herald reported. This involves making plastic vials and filling them with vaccine. One of the challenges the company identified was keeping the vaccine at a low enough temperature not to kill it while heating the plastic vials to 160 degrees Celsius during their formation. More