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A robust, reliable and reusable pharma supply chain – whatever the shipment size

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Niall Balfour, CEO, Tower Cold Chain, discusses the current challenges in the pharmaceutical cold chain and highlights how pharmaceutical manufacturers can ensure safe delivery of shipments, from mass-market to clinical trials.

Key insights:

It goes without saying that the pharmaceutical industry has some of the most stringent supply chain requirements of any market. Not only do many biopharmaceuticals require temperature-controlled preservation throughout their journey from manufacturer to patient, but there is growing demand for tangible sustainability, traceability and digitalisation, and mounting regulation to provide a clear, consistent framework for excellence.

Add to this the need to maintain these standards when customers require cold chain solutions ranging from mass shipments to small batches – for example, for clinical trials – and the challenge becomes considerably harder. Manufacturers need partners they can trust, whatever the shipment size.

At the core of any pharmaceutical cold chain solution, sit three key factors. Containers must be able to withstand the rigours of international travel, across land, sea and air. They must prove a consistent internal environment with no temperature excursions. And, increasingly, they need to demonstrate their sustainability credentials to minimise environmental impact.

Robust, reliable and reusable

In light of these challenges, pharmaceutical manufacturers are compelled to seek out packaging solutions which fundamentally meet a core criterion: they are robust, reliable and reusable. And the three are increasingly entwined. Clever product design not only ensures the protective strength to achieve robustness; it also helps to achieve consistent (often sub-zero) temperatures; and optimises the usage of internal space for greater volumetric efficiency.

Likewise, passive temperature-controlled containers are becoming a strategic choice for organisations, achieving consistent temperatures, without excursion, for up to 120 hours – without requiring an active energy source. That’s one of the ways in which sustainability takes centre stage. Just as important, is what happens to that container at the end of its journey. A single-use solution obviously offers a poor return against the resources used to create it. As such, reusable cold storage containers are growing in prominence, simply by the fact that they stay in market circulation for a long time. And clearly, a truly reusable container must be robust and reliable to fulfil its function of protecting pharmaceutical shipments.

Size matters

With a global footprint comprising two-dozen hubs at major airports, Tower’s focus has been on bringing the ‘robust, reliable, reusable’ ethos to larger, pallet sizes – to give the pharmaceutical industry the top-class product protection and repeatable performance it needs.

More recently, we’ve also developed a solution to suit the growing demand for personalised medicines, small batch shipments and last-mile delivery. It was clear from talking to customers that the market would benefit from a solution that delivered the same standards of cold chain excellence in a small box.

The result is the KTEvolution, a manually handleable container (in either 26L or 57L sizes) which offers the same protection, security, and visibility as our existing containers. Even in the most challenging and remote environments, it is designed to withstand shock, vibration and climate risk, and pre-qualification testing confirms it meets 120+ hour protection for < -60°C (ultracold), -20°C (frozen), +5°C (refrigerated), and +20°C (controlled room temperature) shipments

Whether big or small, an effective pharmaceutical cold chain must always be robust, reliable and – increasingly important – reusable. With these things in place, clinicians and patients alike can be sure the pharmaceuticals they use have been well looked after on their journey.

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