News & Opinion

The Sure Chill Company receives Gates Foundation Award

Award winning Sure Chill technology is already helping in the fight to improve global health by safeguarding vaccine security. Now The Sure Chill Company, based in Wales, is the proud recipient of a $100,000 award from the Seattle based Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The award will speed the development of a passive vaccine cooler that will allow vaccination programmes to reach children living in some of the remotest places on the planet.

The innovative Sure Chill refrigeration technology enables the safe storage of vaccines even when external temperatures soar above 40°C and electricity is erratic. Sure Chill stores cold in an internal thermal energy store which can be accessed to maintain constant cooling when power supplies are poor, intermittent or non-existent.

The temperature inside a Sure Chill refrigerator can be maintained easily within the 2°C to 8°C essential to safeguard life saving vaccines - without power, and in sweltering temperatures, for up to 2 weeks. The passive vaccine cooler under development will take things a step further harnessing the thermal energy in pre-frozen icepacks to keep things cool for several weeks, whilst limiting the transfer of thermal energy from the ice, and eliminating the risk of freezing vaccines.

Keith Bartlett CEO of The Sure Chill Company said: "2013 looks set to be an exciting year. In addition to this award, the Sure Chill technology is attracting attention from a wide number of global companies which recognise the commercial potential of its capabilities."

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation was set up by former chairman of Microsoft, Bill Gates, and his wife Melinda some 15 years ago in response to the inequalities in vaccination programmes between rich and poor countries.

Sure Chill chairman, Peter Saunders, OBE, is an entrepreneur and business angel who in London was named UK Business Angel of the Year 2012 by the UK Business Angels Association. Peter commented: "In his BBC Dimbleby lecture, Bill Gates described vaccines as a "miracle tool", but stressed that there are still millions of children in the world who miss out. I am thrilled that the Sure Chill technology is playing a part in the global fight against disease and delighted that it has received recognition and support from the very impressive Foundation set up by Bill Gates and his family."