Pulse Combustion Systems Gains Patent for Pulse-Drying of Viral Vaccines
Pulse Combustion Systems (PCS) today announced that it has obtained a patent concerning the pulse-drying of viral vaccines. The patent was issued on August 27, 2013 under Patent No. 8,517,723.
The patent was initiated after PCS performed some drying trials on a live, beneficial virus that had been developed by a company in that line of business to combat certain plant diseases. The company was shipping the live viruses in liquid form and was incurring large shipping costs. The company had tried conventional spray drying, which killed all of the viruses. After pulse drying, the company’s assay of the pulse-dried powder revealed that essentially all of the viruses were intact.
This result was so unique that a patent was granted.Â
“We knew that Pulse Drying was very gentle on delicate products, but even we were surprised that the viruses were preserved in our dryer, especially after we learned of the failure of conventional spray drying,” said James A. Rehkopf, PCS President. “We have consistently observed that our dryer induces very little degradation to the powder, and this patent is the best example of this to date.”
