Temperature Controlled Vaccine Shipping
We all know what would happen if we left chocolate candy in the car on a hot summer day—it would melt and we would have a hard time eating it. However, not everyone considers what happens to medications like vaccines if they are not stored in the proper temperature during transport. Many vaccine producers use temperature controlled vaccine shipping to ensure that vaccines remain at the correct temperature from the time they are created until they reach the pharmacy, hospital, or physician’s office, and can be distributed.
Vaccines often exchange hands several times between when they are first made and the final consumer—they begin at the manufacturer, may go through several different wholesalers before they arrive at a pharmacy, hospital, or physician’s office, and finally are administered to a patient. During this entire transport, it’s important to keep them in temperature controlled vaccine shipping containers so they maintain a stable temperature and do not become damaged or ineffective.
Benefits of Micro Q Technologies
- Active precision heating or cooling
- Temperature LCD display resolution = 0.1° C
- Temperature control range 0° C to 42° C
- Rechargeable battery with integrated power supply
- Ambient Temperature range -20° C to 50° C
- Temperature holding duration 24+ hours to 168+ hours
- Microprocessor controlled heat pump
- Tamper resistant key switch
- Temperature control resolution = 0.0625° C
Additional Temperature Controlled Vaccine Shipping Benefits
If these doses are not maintained in a temperature controlled vaccine shipping container, they could begin to lose their potency, or the different components inside the vaccine could degrade, which could result in a vaccine that no longer works the way it should. The most damaging conditions for drugs are generally extremely hot or cold temperatures, or very high humidity in storage and transport areas.
The FDA requires that anyone who manufacturers vaccines should put the recommended optimal temperature for storage. Refrigerated products are usually in the range of 35-46 degrees (Fahrenheit), or sometimes should be frozen. If the vaccine does not need to be refrigerated, it often still has a recommended temperature that should be utilized for temperature controlled vaccine shipping containers.
The manufacturers will usually identify the optimal temperature by observing changes in the vaccine when exposed to high or low temperatures, or high humidity. They will also do studies that identify temperature changes that affect the potency of the vaccines.
The most common transportation methods for vaccines are usually by truck, air, ship (if they have to come from another country), and sometimes—although rarely—by rail. It’s important that the shipping companies take time to create appropriate conditions before the vaccines are transported. That may mean creating the best temperature controlled vaccine shipping containers using things like insulated containers, frozen gel packs, dry ice, and even compressors. The shipping containers are also often equipped with things like temperature sensors so the driver can identify if something goes wrong inside one of the containers. In those cases, it’s helpful if the driver also has a back-up plan to be sure the temperature-sensitive items can be moved to another container or placed in a safe temperature setting.
One of the most difficult parts of the shipping process is the amount of time they spend on loading docks prior to being loaded onto the truck, ship, airplane, or other method of transportation. During that time, it’s critical to have a temperature controlled vaccine shipping container in order to keep it at the optimal temperature to preserve its efficacy.
Patient count on the effectiveness of vaccines, and storing and transporting vaccines in the proper temperature is an important step toward being able to deliver an effective product that can help the patients.
