Refinements in Cold Chain Secondary Packaging

With the rising volume—and value—of temperature-controlled specialty pharmaceuticals, it makes sense for suppliers of secondary packaging to upgrade their product offerings. One new entry is for individual cases; the other is to accommodate recent changes in the Envirotainer RKN t2, a pallet-sized container for air freight.

CREDIT: MTS

Minnesota Thermal Science (Plymouth, MN) has unveiled the Credo Cube, a patented technology that features customizable wall dimensions. The modular design of the Cube, combined with its range of phase-change materials to preserve a temperature setting for several days, allows for payload sizes of 127 to 5800 cu. in. (2-95 liter), and temperature ranges of room temp to -50°C. The Cube has six interchangeable walls, which can be stacked into standard freezers for pre-conditioning, and allow for ease of transport or return.

The Envirotainer offering comes from Cold Chain Technologies (Holliston, MA), which appears to be the first packager out of the gate to address changes in Envirotainer’s RKN units. Envirotainer (which leases the containers for air freight) has initiated a product-generation turnover, during which conventional units will remain in use while the new units are phased in during 2009. The new units have changed inner dimensions (reducing the overall payload from 2.93 to 2.73 cu. m.), which will also require changes in dry-ice loading procedures.

Cold Chain Technologies is offering a resized “I-box” to fit the new container, as well as a requalification service to test and validate shipping protocols using the new Envirotainer container. The company is currently qualifying its new I-box and expects to have it ready on May 1. PC