Ever since visiting their Louisville Technology and Logistics Center, DOTmed News has been closely following new innovations in biotechnology shipping services from UPS. The company has recently announced new capabilities within its trademark UPS Temperature True® Packaging service, which can play a crucial role in getting biomedical and temperature sensitive pharmaceuticals through the cold chain and to their destination faster and more responsibly.

DOTmed News sent a few questions to Wanis Kabbaj, UPS Director of Global Strategy, Healthcare Logistics, and Susan Li, Marketing Manager, UPS Temperature True®, to get a fuller understanding of what the technology means, and what else is happening along the cold chain.

DOTmed News: What is UPS Temperature True® Packaging?

Susan Li
Marketing Manager
UPS Temperature True®

A: UPS Temperature True® Packaging is a fast-growing thermal packaging consulting and procurement service designed specifically for healthcare customers. Through this service, our experienced UPS cold-chain packaging experts based in North America, Europe and Asia, help pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device companies design, qualify and procure packaging that best fits their time- and temperature-sensitive transportation needs.

UPS collaborated with qualified thermal packaging suppliers carefully vetted through an extensive quality screening. At the core of UPS Temperature True® Packaging is our “vendor-neutral and customer-centric” approach. This means instead of a one-size-fits-all line developed with a single packaging manufacturer, there is value for our customers to have a range of options that enhance customization and cost-efficiency.

DOTmed News: In what ways does this new packaging service raise the bar in the world of cold chain?

A: For years, UPS engaged with hundreds of healthcare customers with different needs, from packaging dimensions, quality requirements, varying risk tolerance and budgets. Our goal was to build customized packaging to address these needs, and we started by doing research to understand temperature environments. Through our research, we discovered the following:

1) Healthcare companies designing their thermal packaging were very much interested in UPS’s ambient temperature profile and data. As many of them ship through UPS, learning more about environmental conditions enabled them to optimize their packaging and improve their protective performance while decreasing their combined packaging and transportation costs.

2) UPS had an opportunity to help more healthcare customers implement better cold-chain packaging solutions by designing four off-the-shelf lines that are pre-qualified against the UPS U.S. domestic temperature profile.

This service can be combined with other UPS healthcare value-added services such as UPS Proactive Response®, UPS Proactive Response® Secure or UPS My Choice® to build more effective healthcare temperature-sensitive supply chains that create a higher degree of compliance and security and a better customer experience.

DOTmed News: What engineering technology went into developing these packaging models?

A: When it came to making technical decisions, our goal was to combine cost effectiveness with a high standard of thermal protection. This is evident in the insulations and Phase Change Materials (PCM).

• The Med 100 packaging line is based on a newly developed insulated envelope for small payload shipments against extreme heat and cold environments. The envelopes are made with an environmentally friendly material that is 100% biodegradable.

• The Med 200 line uses low-cost, water-based gel packs to provide seasonal protection of refrigerated products. The unique packout design simplifies gel conditioning but also eliminates “freeze shock.”

• Our Med 300 line uses an innovative design with a rapid cooling technology that eliminates the complexities of pre-conditioning and the need for freezers or refrigerators at the point of origin. Shippers are easy to activate and self-contained.

• What stands out about the Med 400 line is its modular design and cooler that can be used for three different temperature packouts. This eliminates excess box inventory and reduces operational complexity. The use of advanced PCM helps reduce the dimensional weight of the shippers while offering a higher degree of thermal protection.

DOTmed News: How does UPS handle risk mitigation along its cold supply chain?

A: Good risk mitigation starts with a sound transportation network and a world-class, comprehensive logistics portfolio. The UPS logistics network handles millions of packages every day with a robust on-time performance.

UPS collaborates with tier-one companies with strong quality records, and we audit them frequently to ensure their performance remains in line with strict UPS standards of excellence. Along with transportation for temperature-sensitive shipments is the need for product protection. It is important to select packaging and containers that provide a level of safety and security beyond ordinary conditions that shipments may encounter.

For temperature-controlled air freight, UPS’s experts systematically identify all the potential points of risk along the supply chain and co-define with our customers at least two alternative actions to mitigate these risks. These could be alternate routings or temporary cold-chain storage. With UPS Proactive Response®, our professional agents proactively monitor shipments along the supply chain and intercept packages at risk of missing scheduled delivery time, need refrigeration or dry-ice replenishment, require delivery rerouting or some other intervention to mitigate risk.

DOTmed News: What are some overall trends you are seeing in cold chain packaging and shipping?

A: The cold supply chain is experiencing unprecedented growth and one of the most defining trends that impact this market is regulatory compliance. The progressive convergence of Good Manufacturing Practices (GMPs) with Good Distribution Practices (GDPs) is putting increased pressure on healthcare companies. Regulators around the world are requesting a higher level of protection for all temperature-sensitive shipments, whether they require a 2-8°C temperature or a controlled room temperature (CRT) environment. This is changing established practices across the industry.

A second trend is the need to reach more and more global markets, with longer transit times, more regulatory diversity, and challenging weather conditions and infrastructures. A shipment that originates in Toronto in January and arrives in San Paolo likely will see constant external temperature shifts along the supply chain. It will also have to comply with both Health Canada’s stringent guidelines and ANVISA’s in Brazil. Shippers are faced with increased pressures to navigate an often-complex regulatory landscape.

A third cold chain trend is constant technological innovation. New materials are being introduced in cold chain packaging to improve insulation — aerogels, thermal blankets, etc. — or to maintain temperature within a very precise temperature range (PCMs).

UPS expects innovation to accelerate notably around the platforms to communicate and analyze the environmental information gathered by an increasing number of sensors. As the cold supply chain continues to evolve, UPS is committed to providing the right solutions and expertise to meet our customers’ growing needs.