NeO - Smart & Environmentally Sustainable Vaccines

The significant reduction in the environmental impact of the packaging used for the new NeO vaccines illustrates Boehringer Ingelheim’s drive to encourage environmental responsibility in its developments.

NeO is an innovative technology which replaces traditional freeze-dried vaccine pellets in glass vials with innovative effervescent tablets of vaccine in blister packs.

Each tablet contains a freeze-dried vaccine virus, packaged in a light-weight aluminum blister. Active vaccine ingredients are the same as the ones used for viral vaccines in glass vials.

Measuring the environmental impact ‘from cradle to grave’

The NeO range of vaccines has an environmentally responsible dimension in addition to its practical advantages. The environmental benefits have been demonstrated through a global ‘cradle to grave’ Life Cycle Assessment carried out in collaboration with Quantis, a world leader in sustainable development. The conducted assessment included treatment on a farm and annual sales of the product. Several markets were chosen for the global assessment of the packaging, representing a variety of distribution channels and regions of the world.

This analysis compared the environmental impact of the new packaging for the NeO vaccines with that of the traditional freeze-dried vaccines packaged in glass bottles, following a methodology used worldwide and standardized by ISO 14040-44.

Box size halved, waste reduced by 90%

The blister packs for the NeO avian vaccines in effervescent tablet form are more convenient: easier to use, no syringe needed, shortened vaccine preparation time, less storage space needed, and safer. No syringe use means improved safety for the operator and minimal risk of error during preparation. In addition, the weight of the waste resulting from vaccination operations is reduced by 90%. Across the whole life cycle of the vaccine’s packaging (production, transport, storage, and waste management), this new technology decreases resource requirements by 70%, water footprint by 70% and impact on climate change by 80%, compared with the same vaccine packaged in bottles. As a start, Boehringer Ingelheim is gradually rolling this technology out to all its avian vaccines.