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Tag: pharma

New Zebra Sensors Increase Supply Chain Visibility

Posted on by Keith McKinley

Zebra Technologies Corporation, a leading digital solution provider enabling businesses to intelligently connect data, assets, and people, has launched its new line of environmental sensors. The full solution, including the new ZS300 sensor, ZB200 Bridge and Android Sensor Discovery app, further expands Zebra’s opportunity to transform environmental exposures into customer insights.

Using these sensors, manufacturers, wholesalers, transportation and logistics operators in the food, pharmaceutical and healthcare industries now have cloud-based visibility into a range of environmental factors, including temperature monitoring and moisture detection. This will enable them to know if products have been maintained within appropriate conditions across the supply chain. The sensors help improve profitability by allowing users to take corrective action in real time and maximise their productivity with a more efficient data logger.

“We’re excited to expand our sensor technology to address the need for cost-effective supply chain visibility and data insights,” said Tony Cecchin, Vice President and General Manager, Supplies and Sensors, Zebra Technologies. “The ZS300 electronic sensor extends our robust portfolio, including visual and printable indicators, providing customers the ability to drive smarter business decisions, reduce waste and increase efficiency.”

Zebra understands its customers’ needs for continuous visibility into the handling of environmentally sensitive items, particularly for the food, pharmaceutical and healthcare industries that must move products safely across the supply chain. The new ZS300 electronic sensor addresses the current challenges faced with heightened consumer concerns about medications or food being compromised in transit with a secure cloud platform that makes it easy to integrate temperature logging into a wide variety of applications and systems of record. They are available in multipacks and include minimal biodegradable packaging and a no-cost recycling program to help reduce the impact on the environment.

Only four-in-10 pharmaceutical decision-makers surveyed in Zebra’s Pharmaceutical Supply Chain Vision Study said they completely trust the entities within the pharmaceutical supply chain to keep medications safe and uncompromised throughout the supply chain. And according to the Zebra Food Safety Supply Chain Vision Study, only an average of 37% of industry decision-makers and 20% of consumers place complete trust in the industry to ensure food and beverage safety.  Zebra is a market leader in asset tracking, and this new solution extends the power of Zebra’s mobile computers and tablets as data can be collected from these devices to provide immediate visibility to the temperature exposure of shipments.

Ivanti Wavelink, an Independent Software Vendor (ISV) partner, is one of the first to develop a software solution for the ZS300/ZB200 electronic sensors solution using APIs, SDKs and documentation from Zebra to provide temperature insights with location. The Ivanti Velocity Client and Ivanti’s Neurons for IIOT platform support the ZS300 solution to seamlessly enable the integration of environmental sensing into enterprise systems.

“Environmental sensors address critical needs of businesses in the market, and we are excited to collaborate with Zebra to deliver for our mutual customers,” said Brandon Black, Senior Vice President, and General Manager, Ivanti Wavelink. “Today, we are seeing customers place a lot more emphasis on monitoring the conditions of goods where spoilage can result in costly recalls and adversely affect their bottom lines. With Zebra, our combined solution helps customers gain a competitive edge while reducing risk.”

 

Tag the Temperature

Posted on by David Priestman

A new easy-to-use tag is bringing exciting new functionality to pharma and fresh food logistics.

Pharma cold chain logistics requires strict adherence to temperature ranges, regulatory controls, and tight expiration windows. When dealing with products that require ultra-low temperature tracking and monitoring – vaccines, biosamples, blood, and cell and gene therapies (CGT) are just a few examples — even the slightest temp excursion, failure to comply, or shortest delay could result in a lost shipment worth millions. In fact, failures in the pharma cold chain alone cost the industry an estimated $35 billion annually. Furthermore, there is no guarantee that shipments would arrive intact and usable without the ability to monitor temperatures, be exposed to humidity and light, or withstand an impact/shock event.

Fresh product transport faces similar issues. Today’s consumers expect more than just food; they want freshness and sustainability too. This parallels the global supply chain, where the expectation is for on-time, in-full deliveries, freshness, and—no surprise—sustainability, with a healthy helping of innovation.

The solution is simple – full visibility in real time to control the parcel at every stage of their journey.

With Tive’s supply chain visibility solution, the manufacturer can monitor the temperature and location of shipments in real time. If a shipment is set to the wrong temperature, the manager can contact the carrier armed with the information necessary to have the issue fixed right away. In addition, the manager can prepare replacement shipments as soon as a potential issue is identified, instead of waiting until arrival to discover damages and frantically manufacture and ship replacements. This means that the company can avoid lost time on the market and reliably deliver on its commitments to the end customer.

Trackers and Tags

Traditional Tive Trackers are compact, affordable, available for single or multi-use, and feature a one-button interface that makes them easy to use. The trackers stay attached to time-critical shipments until their destination, providing shipment data directly to customers at every step. Tive’s cloud application sends custom notifications when issues arise. In the event of a temperature excursion, team members can quickly identify a problem with the dry ice or PCM.

“The development of technology allows the use of trackers and probes monitoring the goods cable in refrigerated conditions, which thanks to the use of IoT and cloud computing as well as universal access to the network allow for constant monitoring, among others, of temperature, humidity, or location of the shipment in real time, and even in the case of minimal deviations from the set parameters, all parties involved are notified with special alerts. Tive has been offering such solutions since 2016. The challenge for companies now is to implement such solutions on all freight requiring transport in a controlled temperature,” said Dennis Perjet, Head of Strategic Accounts, EMEA.

Besides traditional trackers, which capture and transmit hyper-accurate location and temperature data of shipments in real time — enabling customers to actively monitor in-transit shipments, take action when deviations occur, and identify areas for supply chain improvements – this summer Tive introduced a new solution, called the Tive Tag. It is a cloud-enabled temperature logger, in the form of a thin, flexible shipping label, and at half the cost of a conventional logger.

“The Tive Tag is a simple solution for shippers, retailers, cold storage operators, and last mile delivery,” said Dennis Perjet. “It’s a shipping label with an incredible amount of tech embedded inside it. And it’s incredibly easy to use. In just 3 steps you stick the label on, scan the label with your phone, and ship.”

Tive has a portfolio of award-winning cold chain innovations. Tive covers the full range of temperatures required to protect all critical cold chain shipments—including dry ice and cryogenic shipments. In addition to lithium and non-lithium Solo 5G trackers (TT-7000/TT-7100) already covering the temperature range of -30°C to +60°C, Tive is adding new trackers with probes that will reach -200°C to monitor dry ice and cryogenic shipments.

Pharma container available for demonstration

Posted on by David Priestman

Tower Cold Chain’s latest product for smaller pharmaceutical shipments, the KTEvolution container offering protection, security, and visibility in a small box, is now available for demonstration globally, at the company’s Centres of Excellence in the EMEA, APAC and Americas regions.

The KTEvolution is the most recent addition to the temperature-controlled specialist’s product range and is available in 26-litre and 57-litre options, offering a new lightweight and cost-effective solution for the pharmaceutical supply chain.

Demonstrations will be held at Tower’s three Centres of Excellence in Reading (UK), Philadelphia (US) and Singapore where customers and prospects can gain tangible insights and observe the KTE’s benefits and features in real-time.

Hosted by Tower’s sales team, customers will have unmediated access to experts during the demonstration process and can ask detailed questions to help inform purchase decisions. Upon request, customers can also book a demonstration at their own location, where a Tower Cold Chain sales representative can organise a suitable date and time for customers within one working day.

This complementary offer comes after the KTEvolution’s successful debut at LogiPharma and CPHI Frankfurt in 2022.

Niall Balfour, CEO, Tower Cold Chain, says: “We have seen a significant interest following this year’s exhibition season, after showcasing the KTEvolution for the first time. The KTEvolution fills a gap in the cold chain market and provides a more compact, light-weight option that we feel many industries, customers and patients will be able to benefit from.

“We have found in-person demonstrations to be far more beneficial to our customers as they allow for a more in-depth insight into Tower’s products. We are delighted to be able to offer this service for the KTEvolution.”

The reduced weight and easy-to-handle nature of the KTEvolution makes it an ideal option for smaller shipments such as direct-to-patient, samples shipment, and last-mile deliveries.

The KTEvolution range will be available across a full temperature range, capable of transporting pharmaceuticals, life-science, and biotech products that require an internal temperature of -80°C, -60°C, -20°C, +5°C, +20°C and can provide 120+ hours of insulation without requiring any external power source or intervention.

White paper: pharma cold chain technologies compared

Posted on by Keith McKinley

The vital role that temperature-controlled packaging plays in transporting pharmaceuticals around the world has been highlighted in a new white paper from Tower Cold Chain, with the aim of helping stakeholders find the right solution for their needs.

Compounded by the demands of the COVID-19 pandemic, the white paper provides practical advice on the various options available, with insight delivered by seven leading industry experts from across the supply chain. These include senior decision makers from Johnson & Johnson, DHL and LOT Polish Airlines, who deliver an unbiased guide that is ideal for specifiers in pharmaceuticals, 3PL and air freight looking to make informed choices.

Free to download from the Tower website, the white paper – titled ‘Passive v Active in a globally disrupted age’ – collates the key findings of a 90-minute webinar organised by Tower in late 2021. Amongst the topics covered are the rapid changes affecting the industry; the new challenges that are arising in delivering vaccines to remote areas; and the considerations that must be made in selecting the optimum container type for the task.

At the heart of the publication is an assessment of the relative merits of Active, Passive and Hybrid temperature-controlled packaging solutions with detailed insight on their use across the global pharmaceutical supply chain.

In an unbiased review of the technologies the white paper identifies a place for all types of temperature-controlled solutions within the market.

“In some circumstances, active methods are ideal. In others, passive is the only sensible choice to de-risk the shipment,” explains Kevin Doran, Global Head of Supply Chain at Tower Cold Chain.

“When it comes to patient care and the effective delivery of critical pharmaceuticals there’s no benefit in being partisan. We felt it was vital that decision makers can get a balanced view, which is why this white paper brings together a wide range of voices to survey the whole landscape and identify the scenarios for the best use of each technology.

“We’re grateful to all of the experts who gave their time and provide such a rich source of insight and information – and we look forward to sharing it with others.”

CLICK HERE to download the white paper

 

Opinion: pharma sector needs logistics skills

Posted on by David Priestman

The pharmaceutical retail, wholesale and distribution sector is ‘in play’, as they say on the markets, writes Leigh Anderson (pictured), Managing Director at Bis Henderson Recruitment. The group around Lloyds Pharmacy (retail) and AAH Pharmaceuticals (wholesale) has been acquired by Aurelius; Walden has bought Movianto, joining Eurotranspharma and Ciblex and so bolstering its claim to be ‘the European leader in transport and logistics for pharma’; and takeover rumours swirl around Walgreen-owned Boots/Alliance, along with other companies in the UK and Europe.

In parallel with this market activity, we are seeing a marked upswing in recruitment for senior and middle-ranking logistics and supply chain posts in the sector. And it’s hardly surprising, as wider skill sets from pertinent related sectors will be needed.

Changes in ownership invariably trigger reviews of business strategies and consequent reassessment of whether the right skills and expertise are in place to achieve the new goals. But this comes on top of more fundamental changes that have been triggered or accelerated by the Covid pandemic.

Restructuring, and pharmacy involvement in vaccine rollouts, has prompted significant and ongoing investment in new distribution centres, final mile delivery and automation – including robotic dispensing solutions. In addition, the pandemic has revealed critical dependencies, especially for packaging and drug delivery supplies, which has pushed supply chain resilience higher up on corporate agendas.

More fundamentally, the pandemic has accelerated the digitalisation of medicine, including pharmacology. Pressure on general practice has been met by ramping up the NHS Direct platform, and by a boom in private sector on-line medicine, through firms such as Babylon, PushDoctor and Lloyds Pharmacy Clinical Homecare. And this is extending to the on-line ordering of drugs and therapies, particularly repeat prescriptions, for delivery Direct-to-Patient.

The processes are analogous to, but with significant differences from, consumer eCommerce. Direct-to-Patient promises to be more convenient, to reduce waste, to encourage better course adherence by patients, as well as helping to control the problem of parallel imports. Better visibility of demand can be fed into predictive analytics for further improvement. But exactly what this might mean for the role of wholesalers is still in question.

The vaccine development and roll-out process has also highlighted the importance of accurate logistics to clinical trials, where any supply failure risks negating months or years of development work and delaying the deployment of valuable therapies.

Healthcare is a data-rich environment and there is now a real emphasis on using sophisticated data analytics, to quote Walden, “to optimise logistics processes and streamline flows both within health entities (pharmacies, hospitals), and also directly to patients”. Digitalisation is rapidly being applied to a host of regulatory requirements, from real-time traceability to quality control, market authorisation, pharmaceutical release, Customs brokerage, and more.

Forward-looking companies are also beginning to plan for an era of individually tailored therapies, especially around cell and gene therapies. So-called ‘vein to vein’ supply chains will require needle-sharp logistics to move blood or tissue samples from the patient to the laboratory as well as delivering the resultant therapy back to the patient – all under critical time pressure. The trend, already evident, is forever wider product ranges, in smaller volumes and with high demand volatility, with very short shelf lives, requiring differing temperature regimes, dealt with in part by increasing use of postponement strategies. And, needless to say, all this has to be conducted with the highest ethical and customer-centric focus.

So what are the skills companies are looking for to meet this complex agenda? Clearly, experience of significant change management will be valuable. There are specific technical skills in demand also – in robotics and automation, in the application of big data analytics to supply chain and distribution activities, and in building effective direct to user distribution channels taking appropriate learnings from consumer eCommerce. Experience in time-critical sectors (short life products and stringent delivery time requirements), and in reducing fulfilment times is in demand, as is experience in using procurement and supplier relations processes to improve supply chain resilience.

Managers at all levels will also need an understanding of how heavily regulated industries have to operate – especially as some innovations in, for example, Direct-to-Patient supply may, in some countries, require legal or regulatory change.

Partly because of this, there has been an unspoken assumption in parts of the sector that senior staff really need a medical, pharmacological or life science background. But it is now appreciated that this isn’t necessarily the case, and that there are lessons to be learned and knowledge to be transferred from other sectors – consumer eCommerce, temperature-controlled food distribution chains, even the data analytics used in high volume, but high variance, industries such as fashion.

Bis Henderson has extensive experience of helping managers with these high value skills transition into different industrial and commercial sectors, enhancing their careers and facilitating knowledge transfer to new employers. As a natural port of call for logistics and supply chain professionals seeking to develop, we have access to a deep pool of the skills and talent that the pharmaceutical distribution sector will need to meet the coming challenges.

 “Game-changing” solution for ultra-cold pharma transport

Posted on by Keith McKinley

The launch of the latest solution from pharmaceutical thermal protection specialist Tower Cold Chain is cited as a “game-changer” by customers who have tested the new KTM42D Tower Double Euro Pallet Ultra Cold in the field.

The KTM42D is a fully reusable double-pallet temperature-controlled packaging container, for the transportation and extended storage of products that require an internal temperature range of -80˚C to -60˚C.

It is therefore ideally suited for the transportation of vaccines, life science products and any other product requiring a stable temperature environment during transportation or storage.

The “game-changing” nature of the KTM42D lies in the use of Tower’s proven robust, reliable and reusable technology, to achieve the optimum balance between ultra-low temperatures, shipment size, simplicity of use, and reusability.

“All of our solutions are developed to meet the needs of pharmaceutical manufacturers, 3PL providers and airlines,” commented Niall Balfour, CEO of Tower Cold Chain. “As such, the KTM42D has been designed to accept two full Euro pallets and maintain the stored contents at less than –60°C for over 94 hours.

“Initial feedback has been beyond our expectations, with one partner calling it a ‘game changer.’ We can’t wait to show customers everything that the KTM42D can do,” he added.

The KTM42D is compatible with all major modes of transit delivery, including wide-bodied aircraft, reefers and all road-transport options.

By using a passive temperature control system that removes the need for external power, and datalogging technology to provide real-time confirmation of the internal temperature, no human intervention is required during transportation.

Instead, the KTM42D features an easy load and unload process through double door access. With less than five-minute load-and-reload time, human contact with dry-ice is minimised to help maintain industry-leading health and safety working conditions.

Temperature is consistent throughout the payload to prevent any temperature differentiation in container. Indeed, when stored in a (-20°C) freezer unit the KTM42D maintains temperatures of under -60°C for over nine days and can be replenished with dry ice in under five minutes, providing unlimited deep freeze time.

The KTM42D is available across Tower’s growing global network of strategically located hubs, providing availability within 24 hours or less. In addition, all KTM42Ds are fully reusable, helping customers to meet sustainability targets with a circular solution for their pharmaceutical supply chain.

Easier pharmaceutical packaging with optimised supply chain

Posted on by David Priestman

Pharmaceutical manufacturers face numerous challenges ranging from decreasing batch sizes and increasing item diversity to massive time and cost pressure. These challenges also make the procurement of packaging materials more complex. Packaging specialist Faller Packaging supports its customers in making these processes faster, more efficient and at the same time more sustainable with the help of digitalisation and networking. Users benefit from better forecasts, simpler quality assurance and less work thanks to automated processes.

Increasing customisation and more and more therapy and dosage forms are causing the variety of pharmaceutical industry products and variants to rise rapidly. The demand for medicines and healthcare products is growing, while manufacturers must also bring their new developments to market much faster if they are to gain an advantage over the competition. The digitalisation of the supply chain offers manufacturers great potential, enabling them to meet these challenges.

Production and logistics processes can be made faster, more efficient, more reliable and more sustainable. In concrete terms, this means that users can plan better and more precisely and make quality assurance along the supply chain easier. Automated processes also reduce the analogue effort.

Faller Packaging has a vast wealth of experience in this field. The specialist company for pharmaceutical secondary packaging has tackled the issue of digital supply chain solutions for the industry in depth – and has established a broad product and service portfolio to that end. The company has now published a new white paper to show how the digital transformation of the supply chain works in practice.

In the white paper, readers will learn which technologies and concepts can help to digitally connect all the elements of the supply chain, namely material, product, people and information flows. This results in better understanding and coordination of processes, faster use of information and more efficient scheduling. The result is significant improvements that enable manufacturers to save time and costs in equal measure.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FREE WHITE PAPER

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