Using UV Disinfection For Purified Water in Vaccine Production

The Institute of Medical Biology is the largest oral, anti-poliomyelitis vaccine production base in China. Since the 1960s it has produced over 5 billion vaccines for the National Planned Child Immunization programme in China. It is also the largest Chinese base for the development of Hepatitis A vaccines.

Because the Institute has always had very strict quality controls of its production process, when a new production facility was built in 2013 the Institute opted for Hanovia’s PharmaLine PQL UV technology.

Commenting on the Hanovia equipment, Shen Feng, the senior engineer and water treatment equipment expert at the Institute, said, “Compared with other UV disinfection systems, Hanovia’s PharmaLine PQL offers validated disinfection that has been certified by an independent third party. It also displays the UV dose online, meeting the stringent requirements of the pharmaceutical industry for verification and risk management.”

Purified Water has had almost all electrolytes removed, making it as inert as possible. The removal of any potential microbial contamination is of course also vital. Purified Water is an essential raw material for the production of vaccines and indicators (TOC, bacterial endotoxins, microorganisms, pH and conductivity) are strictly required in the pharmacopeia of many countries. Of these indicators, all but microorganisms and bacterial endotoxins can be controlled by water preparation technology.

UV kills 99.9% of the microorganisms, ensuring the concentration in purified water remains at an extremely low level (≤5cfu/ml). UV also does not produce any unwanted disinfection by-products that might contaminate the purified water downstream.