Refrigerated medical products

Some medicinal products need to be stored and shipped at lower than ambient temperatures to assure their quality . These are often referred to as “cold chain products” or “fridge lines” and wholesale dealers are expected to store and distribute them in strict accordance with the product labelling requirements.

Some cold chain items, such as vaccines, insulin, biotech products and products derived from blood or plasma, can be classified as particularly high risk because they are at risk from freezing as well as elevated temperatures.

Following dispatch from a manufacturing facility, the distribution chain for medicinal products can be complex, potentially involving a number of storage locations, wholesalers and modes of transport, before the delivery finally reaches the pharmacy.

The transportation arrangements from one location to another should be regarded as an extension of the storage activities and distributors are expected to treat each journey as unique with the length and complexity, as well as any seasonal variations, being considered when choosing the packing method and mode of distribution.

Best practice in this area is the implementation of temperature monitoring as a matter of routine for all refrigerated deliveries, but especially within shipments of high risk products where the temperature should be strictly controlled and monitored with calibrated temperature probes to provide temperature data for the entire journey.

PIMM™ Cold Chain Management (CCM) provides “end to end visibility” for your cold chain. The system monitors, analyzes and manages the entire distribution process from supplier plants, 3rd party carriers, 3rd party cold storage/distribution centers, outbound delivery fleet and in-store cold storage.

To learn more about this and other PIMM™ Products, please visit us at www.Procuro.com or call TOLL FREE today 1-888-571-PIMM (1-888-571-7466)!