StoneStable, Inc. is a Portland-based startup company with close ties to Portland State University and plans to use technology developed by Professor Ken Stedman to address the issue of vaccine wastage. According to a World Health Organization report over fifty percent of all vaccines are wasted. A major factor contributing to the loss is lack of refrigeration. As biological products, vaccines must be transported at controlled temperatures. If at any point in time the “cold chain” between the production line and the final destination is broken, the vaccine quickly becomes ineffective. The difficulty is that in many parts of the world, particularly in developing and underdeveloped countries, maintaining a cold chain is impractical, if not altogether impossible. StoneStable believes the solution is to remove refrigeration from the equation.
