Pharmaceuticals Need Cold Storage Too!
When we think
of cold storage services such as what A-1 Cold Storage provides we
tend to think about produce, seafood, meat and other perishable food
products. Yet we don’t think about the transportation of
pharmaceutical or biomedical products such as blood plasma, serums
like the H1N1 influenza serum and other bio-products. These
commodities require a consistent and very narrow temperature range
(between +2°
C and +8°
C). This is critical to maintaining the integrity of the product.
Some of the biomedical and pharmaceutical products which A1 Cold
Storage has handled are as follows:
·
Plasmas
·
Serums
·
Saline
·
Syringes
·
Frozen bio-samples
·
Chemical-based
bio-products
·
Animal organ samples
These commodities typically have a much higher value
than food products such as produce, seafood and meat. While a pallet
of tomatoes may be valued at a few thousand dollars at resale, some of
these bio-products may have a value in excess of several hundred
thousand dollars. In addition they are much more sensitive to
exposure to environmental conditions such as heat, light and
handling.
Importation of
bio-medical products
For nearly a decade, A1 Cold Storage has assisted importers of
pharmaceutical and biomedical products as well as their logistics
partners by effectively handling these sensitive commodities. Often
times bio-medical products will arrive at the airport with some type
of government agency (USDA or FDA) hold and the shipment cannot be
cleared without obtaining the proper certificates such as the
necessary import licenses, veterinary certificates or even quota
compliance documentation. In the meantime, A-1 Cold Storage can retrieve
the “held” shipment and hold it at the appropriate
storage temperature until released for distribution. A1 Cold Storage
has handled thousands of these types of shipments and has the
necessary resources at the ready to deal with these obstacles and
ensure that the product is moved in an expeditious manner. In
addition they will perform inventory checks, scan-in the shipment for
tracking purposes and arrange for temperature controlled delivery of
the product. Also A1 often dedicates a truck exclusively for the
purpose of delivering the bio-products to the client rather than
co-loading for last minute, “Just-in-Time” deliveries.
Exportation of
bio-medical products
As with imports, export shipments must also conform to strict
temperature control and sensitive handling procedures. To facilitate
this A1 has elected to invest in the use of temperature controlled
“Envirotainers.” These specially designed containers
allow the consistent monitoring of the temperature of the contents.
The Envirotainer is packed with dry-ice and uses a battery-powered
cooling system to ensure a constant temperature regardless of the
outside environmental conditions.
A1 maintains cleanliness and avoids any cross
contamination by acquiring the Envirotainer one day prior to the
arrival of the biomedical shipment in order to clean the container,
check its operation, pre-condition the container and load the
biomedical product into the Envirotainer. Then the container is
packed with dry ice, the batteries are engaged and temperature
monitoring begins for several hours prior to tendering to the
airline. This preserves the integrity of the product from the point
of departure to arrival.
Please let us
know if you have a requirement for handling these specialized
commodities. If you are a freight forwarder, customs broker or any
type of logistics expeditor, our goal is to MAKE YOU LOOK GOOD!
