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The risk of deterioration of healthcare products

The risk of deterioration of healthcare products

From the production centre to the distribution centre until it is administered to the patient, a healthcare product may frequently be in transit for several days and during this period it must, without fail, be maintained within the specified temperature range! However, insulated shipping solutions are becoming increasingly efficient in safeguarding the transportation of heat-sensitive products.

Healthcare products are highly sensitive to fluctuations in temperature

The thermal inertia of a heat-sensitive healthcare product is 4 times lower than the thermal inertia of a food product. It cannot withstand transhipment and, if it is handled in this way, any exposure to temperature fluctuations beyond +2 °C or +8 °C must be as brief as possible! 

Any temperature fluctuation is harmful to the product and results in varying degrees of deterioration. The deterioration of a healthcare product is all the more dangerous because it is invisible.

 

The risks associated with the deterioration of medicines

The medicine may be subject to deterioration by heat, as the result of repeated temperature fluctuations, or deterioration by cold. In the latter case, just one period of exposure is sufficient to cause deterioration of the product. With insulin and vaccines, the active ingredients are rendered inert. With other products their pharmaceutical form is altered (separation of the ingredients, precipitates, burst ampoules, etc.), until the products become toxic due to chemical modifications or microbial contamination. It is therefore essential to maintain the product at a precise temperature between +2 °C and +8 °C.

 

A temperature-controlled packaging to protect healthcare products

Heat-sensitive pharmaceutical products (vaccines, biotechnological products, reagents, biological specimens, etc.) must be transported under temperature-controlled conditions. For example:

  • The iBox is a cold chain shipping container. The temperature is automatically regulated inside the packaging as a function of the outside temperature fluctuation: a high-tech solution!
  • The MedTraveller® is ideally suited to the domestic transportation of heat-sensitive medicines. 
  • The Clinibox® is designed to safeguard the transport of clinical trials. 

 

In the healthcare sector, where the stakes are high, it is necessary to have access to a suitable insulated or cooling packaging solution. Guaranteeing transportation at the correct temperature also guarantees the complete therapeutic efficacy of the treatment.