Logistics company UPS is expanding its specialty pharmaceutical offerings by establishing UPS Cold Chain Solutions, which it says will offer a comprehensive suite of cold chain technologies and new and expanded global facilities providing complete, end-to-end, temperature-controlled logistics.
“Our customers have been taking advantage of our cold chain capabilities for years but the pandemic caused UPS to move even faster to enhance an integrated set of cold chain solutions to support the future of the pharmaceutical and medical device industry,” said Wes Wheeler, UPS Healthcare president. “UPS’s near-perfect, on-time delivery of the Covid-19 vaccine proves how effectively and efficiently our network handles biologically derived drugs, even at extreme temperatures.”
“The future of the healthcare and specialty pharmaceutical industries will increasingly rely on robust cold chain networks to safely deliver temperature-controlled drugs and therapies to customers,” added Kate Gutmann, UPS chief sales and solutions officer and SVP, UPS Global Healthcare. “The continued evolution of our cold chain offerings ensures UPS is ready for the future and can continue to provide long-term value for our healthcare customers.”
UPS says its Cold Chain Solutions is purpose-built to provide pharmaceutical companies, healthcare providers and laboratories with a full, end-to-end cold chain service offering, including storage and distribution, transportation, visibility and quality assurance capabilities to meet their complex demands for critical products around the world.
As part of a continued strategy to build sophisticated capabilities in cold chain logistics, UPS Healthcare states that it is expanding and augmenting its temperature-controlled products and services, including increasing the capacity of coolers and freezers installed at UPS facilities to support the storage of biologics ranging from 2°C to as low as -80°C.
It will also offer customers packaging customization along with recommendations for specific temperature-controlled packaging options to minimize total cost while ensuring safe and efficient transportation of products. Construction is also due to start on two new GDP-compliant, healthcare-licensed distribution facilities in Italy and Australia, as well as expansions and cold chain retrofits of other facilities.
