Preparation and Characterization of Stable Liposomal Hepatitis B Vaccine

Various efficient hepatitis B vaccines are available today. Most of them are composed of 22-nm hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) particles, with alum as adjuvant (Zuckerman, 1986). The HBsAg particles are prepared by recombinant DNA techniques in yeast (Butterly et al, 1989). These vaccines suffer from two major disadvantages: (i) low efficacy in non- and low-responders; (ii) law stability during freezing and at high temperature. While the problem of non- and low-responders is a general one, low stability under extreme weather conditions makes the use of the vaccine in Third World countries very problematic.