Drying-induced variations in physico-chemical properties of amorphous pharmaceuticals and their impact on Stability II: stability of a vaccine.

Objectives: To investigate the impact of drying method on the storage stability of dried vaccine formulations.

Materials And Methods: A sucrose-based formulation of a live attenuated virus vaccine of a parainfluenza strain, with and without surfactant, was dried from by different methods; freeze drying, spray drying and foam drying. Dried powders were characterized by differential scanning calorimetry, specific surface area (SSA) analysis and by electron spectroscopy for chemical analysis (ESCA) to evaluate vaccine surface coverage in the dried formulations.