| Whilst transportation innovations designed to maintain the shipment of clinical trials continue to move at pace, the movements of temperature-sensitive materials by air still call for caution notes Martin Peter at Envirotainer
Cold chains for healthcare products are complex, strictly regulated and present one of the biggest challenges for the world’s leading drugs manufacturers and their logistics partners, yet they also represent one of the fastest growing transportation sectors. An independent survey of senior decision-makers in the healthcare industry and logistics providers forecast that the volume of temperature-sensitive airfreight will grow at 10 per cent per annum for the next five years.
Driven by the fact that the world’s leading healthcare companies will only entrust their products to the most competent, technically advanced and quality-driven cold chain partners, a series of transportation innovations have been, and continue to be, developed to safeguard the integrity of shipments such as clinical trials and finished product for the consumer market.
For shipments via air, this hasn’t always been the case. A decade ago, a time delay and temperature variance caused by an unexpected flight delay, a cargo pallet left on the airport tarmac, or a sudden problem with customs clearance could have had disastrous effects for temperature-sensitive products such as vaccines, plasma or hormones.
Today, healthcare companies have much more confidence in their cold chains, but neither they nor their logistics partners will allow any room for complacency. Every shipment represents a new challenge and has its own specific requirements and associated risks. Careful monitoring of transportation conditions and the temperature impact on the product being carried inside today’s modern temperaturecontrolled air cargo containers means there is no hiding place for poor performance. |
