Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - SmartCOOLBOX (Smart modular passive cool boxes for sustainable logistics)

Teaser

The requirements for cold supply chains, especially for Pharma and Biotech industry, are of the highest standards, in coherence with the relevance of the freight involved and the potential consequences in case of an issue. The conditions for the transportation of chemicals...

Summary

The requirements for cold supply chains, especially for Pharma and Biotech industry, are of the highest standards, in coherence with the relevance of the freight involved and the potential consequences in case of an issue. The conditions for the transportation of chemicals, vaccines (human or animal), blood plasma, tissues, clinical trials and similar items need to be guaranteed for the whole supply chain, especially referring to the temperature range.
Ranges of temperature may be very diverse depending of the product, but it is necessary that the process is stable, maintain the “cool chain”. Any deviation over or under of these limits may cause the degradation of the product. The key challenge that the cool chain industry faces is the loss incurred due to temperature excursions – typically estimated at over 20% of total revenue. Additionally, in pharma/biotech products these excursions could have a major impact (from inoperancy to toxicity), especially if they are not registered. In this scenario, the convenience of SmartCOOLBOX is presented, as a Logistic service for high-reliability temperature-controlled products, based on: - SmartCOOLBOX itself, an intelligent, connected, reusable and modular ISOTHERMAL CONTAINER… - … that is OFFERED AS A SERVICE, which simplifies the managing of the transport process
SmartCOOLBOX is an integrated combination of several innovations and technologies which feature:
- Use of light and degradable materials, offering longer life isothermal conditions range at the same time (warrantied for 7 days, following the defined storage and handling conditions)
- Modularity and adaptation to actual goods measures
- Smart sensors for tracking the conditions of the transport
- Smart alerts system to track, and prevent or detect incidents, enabling rescue actions
- Reusability of boxes and materials
- Communications based on GSM triangulation, Wi-FI or Narrowband networks (NB-IoT, Sigfox, Lora,..) in the near future, a low cost, low energy consumption solutions.
- Service covers the full supply chain, including reverse logistics
With SmartCOOLBOX, hospitals, labs and generic logistics operators may handle materials without relevant precautions, increasing safety while decreasing costs. Pharma and biotech industries will reduce losses due to temperature excursions and, in consequence, will open new markets such as difficult geographic areas, as well as disaster areas or in conflict regions. From environmental perspective, savings will come by modular reusable boxes and less wasted products.
At the current moment several opportunities and trends push for a solution like SmartCOOLBOX:
- “As is” current business way means a real and deep pain for pharma industry, both in economic, image and risks for patients’ health factors (e.g. 25% of vaccines reach their destination degraded)
- Trend to adopt circular economy model, due to reduction of costs and environmental impact
- Availability and affordability of sensors and IoT technologies, as well as data analytics and communications
This leads to an opportunity window not exploited yet and INPROUS is in the best position to take advantage of it.
INPROUS is formed by a team with extensive knowledge in pharma cool chain, when offered as a service, with experience in the creation and growth of new business. We have existing agreements with large pharma and biotech industries, having direct access to its logistics and quality departments, as well as experience on their logistics homologation processes. Finally, circular business model has been validated by INPROUS with conventional boxes.

Work performed

The proposed technical solution and its performance have been analysed in comparison to the already existing technical solutions. Furthermore, the analysis encompassed the solution components, their accessibility and the viability of its integration in our product.
Potential new markets – especially regarding the veterinary and food sectors – and their related potential income have been analysed, considering the temperature range that the PCMs offer.
Review of the main market studies to appreciate the extent of the logistics market in the pharmaceutical sector, with a more specific focus on the logistics under controlled temperature. Estimation of the possible market share for areas according to the current income of the company. Also identification of the most interesting geographical markets and to establish priorities.
Extended Business plan:
- Update of the production cost forecast and of the obtained profits according to the revenue forecast.
- Definition of the positions to hold, taking into account the skills and Knowledge of the candidates and definition of the training needs.
- Analysis of the integration time of the product and approximate deadlines to launch it on the first markets.
- Definition of the possible commercial and marketing strategies according to the market.
- The necessity of establishing different launch strategies according to the geographical market has emerged.

Final results

The impact of our solution stem from the analysis of the customer demand that has not been met by competitors.
- INDIVIDUAL CUSTOMER SERVICE
- PRODUCT INTEGRITY ASSURANCE
- REAL TIME CONTROL
- ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY SOLUTION

In addition:
- It is aligned with the policies promoted by the EU:
o Promotion of eco-friendly and energetically sustainable transport to minimize air and noise pollution, climatic change and accidents and to improve the economy, health and life quality of European citizens. Deliveries by roadway are expected to increase in the next years, so smart and green systems rationalising their number and volume need to be reinforced. The considerable reduction of CO2, energy consumption and waste produced during the Life cycle also align with the Paris Agreement on climate change (UNFCCC).
o Citizens’ health and quality of life are always regarded as priority. The availability of vaccines and medicines is fundamental for this goal.
o Finally, EU also pursues the competitivity of its markets, for example in the biotech and pharma sectors that could save resources thanks to solutions like these.
- These standards, as well as the GDPs (Good Distribution Practices), will soon be extended to the veterinary sector. As a consequence, more deliveries will need to be tracked and guaranteed. It should be noted here that veterinary vaccines are 200 times as requested as the human ones. This shows the potential if this market.
- Nowadays, new technologies enable geolocation systems, as well as communications and data accessibility in the cloud at reasonable prices. The deployment of 5G networks and mainly Narrowband networks (NB-IoT, Sigfox, Lora,..) in the near future will facilitate even more these management and control systems (IoT) together with Blockchain technology.
- The isolating materials and the passive cold systems are mature and grounded enough that disruptive alternatives are not envisioned in the short term.

Website & more info

More info: http://www.inprous.com/.