Travelling with Pegasys

[andrey19]

Dear Studyforhope

Could you please make it clear for me and sure many forum users will find your reply usefull as before travelling :

If syringe with Interferon alpha will be kept for 24 hours in room temperature and then put back in refrigerator, what will happen with interferon? Will it be out of order? I called Hot line in US and they say should be no problem but as they say this only applies to Pegasys which is sold within US while I called hot line in my country and they say only +2-8C storage. Who is right? I understand pegasys is same everywhere.

I am going to travel next week and have to take Peg with me and I am not sure I will be able to kept it in 2-8C all the way.

Thanks,

[andrey19]

Hi Studyforhope

Had to travel with pegasys recently and here is what I have done. I had two syringe of pegasys wrapped in insulating towel, then two gel packs on each side  ( The blue eutectic gel is for use with products between +2/+8°C http://www.sofrigam.com/snowgam-gel-packs). Then I wrapped pegasys, insulating towel and gel packs sandwich with aluminium foil and put in the cooler box. I also put electronic termometer between the syringes. In total I had about 18 hours travelling time. When I got to the hotel I checked the temperature and it was 0,5C after such a long flight.  I assume that during the flight the temperature inside the cooler box was surely below 0C maybe -5C or even more. Will such low temperature destroy interferon activity. I am going to travel soon and need to take some peg with me again, so now I am experimentally figuring out how much gel packs I need to maintain right temperature in cool box. Thanks

[timothy141]

36-46 degrees

[timothy141]

Great feedback from studyforhope, I know I freak out just traveling from the rx to home. But I live in Veags and it was hot this summer. Be sure you keep your meds cool.

[andrey19]

Thanks for reply and advice. I will follow it.

[studyforhope]

I am pretty sure that the inherent stability of the 40kd pegylated interferon preparations is very similar for all producers, whatever the brand name might be.
There will be some acceleration of spontaneous decay at room temperature, the exact degree of which can only be dermined experimentally. My guess is that maybe 10% activity is lost after 24 hour at room temp.
But at travel you can use a cold pack and wrap it together with the syringes in an insulating towel, placed inside of that towel in an  aluminum foil around the cold pack, then place it back in a refrigerator quickly after arriving at your destination.