Driving efficiencies and savings for cold-chain products

May 2020

With the growth of specialty pharma products, there’s been a corresponding need to accommodate specialty handling requirements. When products need to be stored, shipped and delivered at a certain temperature, the efficacy of that drug depends on reliable temperature integrity. 3PL Services has been expanding our capacity to store cold-chain products and developing solutions for their safe transit through the supply chain.

According to Pharmaceutical Commerce, nearly half (45%) of prescription drugs approved by the FDA in 2019 were products with cold-chain handling. To meet this growing need, we are expanding our footprint in our LaVergne 2 (LV2) building to add over 700 pallet locations for products held in a 2-8c environment.

Hand-in-hand with proper storage, how cold-chain products travel through the supply chain involves many considerations. And shipper packaging is chief among them. As new cold chain products come to market, custom packaging is typically designed, created, tested and ordered. And while this works well to meet the shipment needs of the product, there are weak links in this chain—speed to market and cost. Custom packaging takes time and money to develop.

3PL Services has partnered with EFP Solutions, a trusted supplier to the pharma, biotech, food and special materials industries, to develop a new solution that aims to bring efficiency to the identification of cold-chain shipping solutions: pre-qualified cold chain shipping solutions.

With pre-qualified cold chain shippers, companies can save significant time and money in the launch of new products. Because there is no need to wait on a custom solution to be designed, tested and refined, products can get to market faster, easier and more efficiently.  3PL Services and EFP also partner to evaluate potential material cost savings for existing solutions for on-market products.

One of our 3PL Services biopharma clients was spending over $30 per unit for a custom small cooler package solution, netting a six-month cost of nearly $20,000. Our pre-qualified solution, in the same size, priced at $14, delivered a cost savings of over $10,000 over the course of six months.

Sizes and temperature ranges ensure there’s a pre-qualified solution for nearly every need.

Size	Item	Transit Time	Payload Area	Outside Dimensions	Weight (lbs.) (Dimensional, Summer, Winter)
X-small	eQ08	48 hours	5.5” x 4” x 3”	11.32" x 9.32" x 12"	8#, 6#, n/a
Small	eQ12	48 hours	8” x 5.5” x 3”	15" x13.25" x 13.55"	16#, 12#, n/a
Medium	eQ26	48 hours	9.75” x 7.5” x 6.75”	15.25" x 15.25" x 15.25"	21#, 19#, n/a
Large	eQ32	48 hours	15” x 10” x 6”	22.4" x 15.4" x 15.25"	31#, 24#, n/a
X-large	eQ74	48 hours	17” x 12.5” x 10.5”	23.5" x 19.5" x 18"	50#, 29#, n/a
Medium	615 VPS	72+ hours	8” x 6.75” x 7.25”	16" x 14.25" x 14.55"	20#, 18#, n/a
Large	663 VPS	72+ hours	15” x 9.5” x 7”	23.75" x 16.5" 16.5"	37#, 35#, n/a

Cardinal Health 3PL Services is proud to partner with EFP to bring pre-qualified cold chain packaging to our customers. For more than 50 years, EFP has been providing exceptional foam molding and fabrication solutions to thousands of companies worldwide. Operating a Cold Chain Center of Excellence and as a neighbor to our LaVergne warehouse, EFP is the right partner to help us deliver the quality and efficiency customers expect.

To learn more about our pre-qualified cold chain pack-outs, contact your Client Relationship Manager.