As the fight against the coronavirus epidemic continues worldwide, the successful development of effective COVID-19 vaccines will represent a crucial milestone in efforts to end the global public health crisis. However, the cold chain is essential in developing vaccine formulations against the pandemic and ensuring that these critically important drugs are widely available to providers and their patients. Vaccines that comply with the vaccine storage and cold chain directive can be served worldwide without deterioration.
Accordingly, their safe and effective distribution and compliance with the vaccine storage and cold chain directive require complex and effective logistics solutions.
Freeze Dried Vaccines
Frozen vaccines are produced using the lyophilization method. This method, used in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology world, enables the fixed storage of drugs. This method, which offers the opportunity to be used when necessary, is often preferred. Thanks to this method, which is frequently used in vaccines, storing vaccines becomes much easier and more practical.
Many people wonder what lyophilization is. Lyophilization is a method of freeze-drying vaccines or other injectable drugs. Thanks to this method, vaccines can be stored much more quickly. Devices that provide this process are also called lyophilizers. Lyophilizers are also produced in different models and designs.
These lyophilizers, which extend the life of vaccines and injectable products, are produced with the Coolormed difference. These very important products provide stronger preservation of frozen vaccines and other health products. Coolermed, among the most successful brands in its field, also offers very successful designs in these products. All products presented under the category are produced in different designs and volumes. Thus, it provides more benefits from the products.
The lyophilizers, offered for sale at special prices in Coolormed, are in different designs. This causes prices to fluctuate. All products can be browsed at budget-friendly prices. Frozen vaccines and other medicinal products can be used for much longer periods with Coolermed lyophilizers.
Vaccine Candidates and Storage Conditions
Vaccines are vital components in global health, requiring meticulous attention and protection, predominantly due to their sensitivity to environmental conditions, such as frozen vaccines produced using the lyophilization method. They must be stored in specialized vaccine cabinets to maintain efficacy and reliability. Coolermed is a leading brand producing quality and reliable vaccine cabinets, which are available in various designs, volumes, and sizes, ensuring ease of use and practicality. These cabinets are essential for preventing spoilage of these products until they are needed, enabling their use in an intact and effective form.
Not only COVID-19 but all vaccines administered to patients are considered “cold chain” products, meaning they necessitate specific storage and transportation conditions from the moment of production until they reach the point of administration. This is crucial for maintaining the integrity and preventing any degradation of their components or the vaccines themselves.
The vaccine storage and cold chain directive mandates specialized storage units like vaccine refrigerators to uphold the stability of vaccines or their components. These units provide the environment to store vaccines effectively at required temperatures, ensuring that the vaccines are preserved in optimal conditions until they are administered.
Every vaccine storage has different requirements, and any breach in the cold chain can result in the loss of potency, rendering it ineffective and, in some cases, unsafe. Hence, maintaining the cold chain is paramount for all valid vaccines and vaccine candidates.
The most effective method for managing vaccine storage and logistics requirements is the deployment of specialized refrigerators and cabinets designed to offer precise temperature controls and monitoring systems, safeguarding these products against any adverse conditions. Brands like Coolermed specialize in producing high-quality and reliable medical storage cabinets, catering to the varied needs of healthcare providers and ensuring that the vaccines continue to be used in an intact and viable form when necessary.
Maintaining the cold chain through reliable and quality vaccine storage solutions is pivotal for preservation, ensuring they remain effective from production to administration. This is achieved through specialized vaccine refrigerators and cabinets, with leading brands like Coolermed providing innovative solutions.
What is the Cold Chain and Why is it Important?
What exactly does the “cold chain” we refer to under the vaccine storage and cold chain directive mean, and why are these vital treatments’ private transport and storage so important to their effectiveness?
“Cold chain products” refers to drugs that must be kept within a precise temperature range. These products include vaccines, biologics, oncology treatments, some types of insulin, and other drugs.
At What Temperature Should Cold-Chain Drugs Be Stored?
Most cold chain products must be kept between 2 and 8 degrees Celsius, and frozen products below -10 degrees Celsius. Some leading COVID-19 vaccine candidates are classified as “ultracold chain.” This indicates temperatures below -80 degrees Celsius under the vaccine storage and cold chain directive.
Cold Chain and Effective Cold Chain
Vaccines or drugs of the type mentioned above, which should be protected in the cold chain, will also maintain their effectiveness if these temperatures are met. Maintaining the integrity of these vaccine storage conditions and other cold chain products includes:
-To ensure the required temperature range during storage and transportation;
– Packing and shipping according to recommended procedures;
-Keeping in the recommended cold chain conditions at all points of the supply chain;
-Convenient vaccine storage and transport at maintenance points.
Effective protection and experience for complex treatments
Pharmaceutical distributors draw on their cold chain storage and transportation expertise when processing temperature-sensitive products and other specialty drugs.
When determining which packaging materials will be used for cold chain shipments to comply with the vaccine storage and cold chain directive, There are several factors to consider, including shipping and control requirements for each drug, expected shipping time, the type of shipping carrier to be used, and expected weather conditions during shipping.
Renewed packaging has enabled distributors to improve their cold chain compliance continuously. Distributors use various packaging types and shipping solutions to maintain the precise temperature ranges needed to ensure the integrity of sensitive products. These include ice and gel packs, agency-approved insulated boxes, dry ice, temperature monitoring devices, refrigerated shipping, temperature-controlled containers, and refrigerated cabinets. Keeping the products at the right temperatures during carrying and transportation processes and in the following few days will be possible.
Increase in Drugs Requiring Cold Chain
The number of drugs that require cold chain use is increasing daily. According to statistics, half of the approved medicines manufactured in the United States in 2018 are temperature-sensitive products, and the total value of cold chain treatments is expected to increase by nearly twice that of standard drugs between 2018 and 2024. In this direction, industrial bodies that must comply with the vaccine storage and cold chain directive are making innovations and investments in this field.
Leveraging the Existing Supply Chain in the Delivery of COVID-19 Treatment
Freeze drying is a premier vaccine production technique, enabling its prolonged usability and effectiveness. This method is particularly crucial for COVID-19 vaccines, allowing them to be stored and preserved accurately for periods of unprecedented demand, such as during pandemics. Brands like Coolermed are pivotal in producing reliable and quality products like medicine storage cabinets and vaccine cabinets, essential for storing these freeze-dried vaccines at appropriate temperatures, ensuring their efficacy is maintained over time.
These user-friendly products can be used across various health settings like hospitals, pharmacies, clinics, and laboratories, ensuring that frozen vaccines and other health products are stored meticulously and reliably. These cabinets, produced in different sizes, integrate well in diverse environments, facilitating the convenient storage of vaccines.
In the context of the delivery of COVID-19 treatment, distributors play a significant role, applying their expertise in transporting cold chain products and other specialty treatments. The investments made in advanced, temperature-controlled supply chain protocols have positioned distributors ideally to maintain the integrity of breakthrough COVID-19 treatments. The amalgamation of precise freeze-drying methods and advanced distribution networks is crucial to meet the unprecedented demand for approved vaccines and treatments.
Close coordination between governments, public health professionals, and the private sector is crucial to distributing these drugs accurately and effectively. Distributors are leveraging their logistics prowess and cold chain capabilities to ensure that patients have access to vital COVID-19 treatments nationwide, maintaining the quality and trust in all products offered, like those by Coolermed, and ensuring that vaccines made by freezing are stored following certain standards to preserve their efficacy.
Sensitivity of Vaccines and Necessity of Cold Chain
Vaccines are sensitive biological substances that may be less effective or must be destroyed if:
- frozen
- allowed to get too hot
- exposed to direct sunlight or UV light, including fluorescent light.
When they are repeatedly exposed to temperatures outside the +2°C to +8°C range, the loss of potency is cumulative and irreversible.
Of course, the requirements for each drug and vaccine may be different. For this reason, the vaccine storage and cold chain directive should be handled correctly by experts and applied effectively both in the transportation and distribution processes.
Location of Vaccine Refrigerator in the Storage of Vaccines
As we mentioned above, vaccines and medicines should not be allowed to be preserved at certain temperature ranges and frozen or left at extreme temperatures. The most effective transportation, carrying, and distribution method in terms of vaccine storage and compliance with the cold chain directive is refrigerators.
Vaccine refrigerators are the equipment that allows the vaccine and various drugs to be preserved for certain periods by adjusting the desired temperatures. With the increase in vaccines and medicines requiring cold chain protection, investments in this field have increased globally. In this way, different features and applications are made in vaccine cabinets.
Use of Vaccine Refrigerator
Vaccine refrigerator, as we mentioned, has now become more common and diverse. For this reason, it is now essential to use cabinets to comply with the vaccine storage and cold chain directive. Vaccine cabinets provide the correct cold chain temperature and allow temperatures to be adjusted and regulated at different time intervals.
This way, biological drugs and vaccine storage have become easier. The importance of vaccines has come to the fore even more, especially in the current era of COVID-19. Ensuring the global distribution and availability of them is also an inevitable requirement. Complex logistics methods, including vaccine refrigerators worldwide, are indispensable to meet this requirement.
In this article, we have talked about vaccine storage and cold chain directives. You can read our previous article on https://coolermed.com/en/cold-chain-in-the-pharmaceutical-industry
