Glass pharmacy

摘要

What do painful injections and solar-powered refrigerators in the middle of Africa have in common? Well, neither might be so crucial in the battle to save lives if a novel way of preserving drugs takes off. Drugs and vaccines lose their potency during dehydration and at high temperatures because the molecules lose their structure and degrade. But biochemists and pharmacologists are using solutions of simple sugars to keep drugs and vaccines in a state of suspended animation, and to develop easier, pain-free ways of taking them.