BWI: Grand Challenges Canada’s Stars in Global Health Grant for Sathguru and RTI International’s Innovative Solution for Last Leg of Vaccine Delivery

Press release from Business Wire India
Source: Sathguru Management Consultants Pvt. Ltd.
Thursday, June 06, 2013 02:41 PM IST (09:11 AM GMT)
Editors: General: Consumer interest, Entertainment, People; Business: Accounting & management consultancy services, Business services, Healthcare, biotechnology & pharmaceutical; Technology; Healthcare
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Grand Challenges Canada's Stars in Global Health Grant for Sathguru and RTI International's Innovative Solution for Last Leg of Vaccine Delivery


Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India, Thursday, June 06, 2013 -- (Business Wire India) -- Sathguru Management Consultants' solution to the logistical challenge in last mile of vaccine delivery developed jointly with RTI International, one of the world's leading research institutes, has been recognized by Grand Challenges Canada with a grant of CAD 100,000. Sathguru has been recognized among 59 peer-reviewed grantees from low and middle income countries in Round 4 of the Stars in Global Health programme for creative, out of the box global health solutions. Grand Challenges Canada is funded by the Government of Canada and is dedicated to supporting bold ideas with big impact in global health.

Sathguru's solution is a portable and battery operated thermoelectric container developed using cutting edge technologies in collaboration with Dr. Rama Venkatasubramanian, Director of North Carolina based RTI International's Center for Solid State Energetics. The thermoelectric container is envisioned to replace the Styrofoam and plastic boxes with ice packs that are currently used to transport vaccines to remote vaccination camps in emerging economies in Asia and Africa.

Sathguru's program lead Pushpa Vijayaraghavan believes that this solution bridges a critical gap and infrastructure challenge in vaccine delivery. She notes that while commendable milestones have been achieved in the development of vaccines, their delivery system is still stuck in a rut of age old practices. "Unfortunately, for moving vaccines to the "last mile" of delivery in remote camps, we still use the Styrofoam boxes and passive cooling technology used 50 years ago. While these ice packed boxes are a cost effective solution, they offer no method to regulate the temperatures in the box and vaccine loss due to temperatures ranging beyond the optimum is a widespread problem. Moreover, the short life of ice packs used significantly limits the duration and efficacy of vaccination camps." Pushpa and Rama believe that their solution will empower health workers with a cost effective yet new-age thermoelectric solution that can provide active cooling in the WHO mandated temperature range for a period of 24 to 48 hours.

While RTI will develop field ready prototypes of the solution, Sathguru will lead the effort in field validation and commercialization of the innovative product. Partners for field validation and commercial production are currently being finalized and will play a critical part in the development of this impactful public health product that could change the landscape of vaccine delivery in resource constrained settings.

For more information on the cold-chain solution being developed by Sathguru and RTI International, please visit http://www.grandchallenges.ca/grantee-stars/0283-01/ .

About Sathguru:

Established in 1985, Sathguru Management Consultants is a niche strategy and innovation advisory firm that combines its expertise in management and science to catalyze success for clients and advance innovation. Sathguru is one of the most active technology transfer advisors in India and is engaged with all stakeholders of the innovation ecosystem including companies, research bodies, policy makers and financers. While Sathguru's corporate advisory group advises companies on innovation strategy, technology opportunities and commercialization strategies, the development group drives several collaborative partnerships for advancing, translating and deploying innovation for the public good.



CONTACT DETAILS
S. Susheel Kumar,Senior Manager - Corporate Communications, Sathguru Management Consultants, +91 (40) 30160237 / 30160333

KEYWORDS
CONSUMER, ENTERTAINMENT, PEOPLE, CONSULTANCY SERVICES, BUSINESS SERVICES, HEALTHCARE, TECHNOLOGY, HEALTHCARE

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