How do we achieve temperature monitoring for pharmaceutical supply chains in a global marketplace?
When it comes to global transportation and shipping of drugs, simply knowing where they are is no longer enough. Pharmaceutical organisations are becoming increasingly aware of the safety regulations which go into storage and transportation, i.e. ensuring that every drug which reaches the patient end, is effective and safe for consumption.
Temperature monitoring across the supply chain
One of the elements of mandatory monitoring – and one which results in the biggest challenges – is to monitoring temperature across the supply chain in real time, both during shipping and when the drugs meet their destination; something which, previously, has been near impossible to track at every stage.
One of the primary challenges identified along the supply chain route is the lack of knowledge at the recipient end. Being able to communicate with recipients of various drugs was immediately identified as one of the major requirements of a thoroughly secure transportation, though it was quickly noted that the exact personnel dealing with the product would never be known, and so they couldn’t be trained. Another solution was needed – one which harnesses the power of digitalisation and technology as a means of tracking and communicating.
Cloud Temperature management across the logistical journey
And so, an idea was born.
While the concept of a tracking device (or logger) has long been regarded as fundamental to being able to keep track of shipments all over the world, the innovation that allows those shipments to instantly be traced and monitored for effectiveness and potential damage, is available through TSS.
The idea is that the data collected by the logger is directly shared via a cloud platform identifying any problems with the shipment, logging them, and communicating with the recipient about the best way to proceed. This could mean the need to send new products; it could mean storage advice; it could simply mean to proceed with caution. But above all, what it means is that the entire supply chain can be monitored and evaluated in line with its effectiveness and affinity to local and global regulations – giving pharma companies access to the information they need about their shipments, at any given time.
In short, the concept of the TSS cloud is to create a middleman between the sender and recipient – a database of knowledge which can respond at any time, to any problem within the pharma logistics trail. Something which enables the sender to monitor performance and supports the recipient in knowing exactly how to handle their shipment and how it should be stored.
If a problem is identified, the data goes one step further – providing a complete breakdown of where the problem occurred through the cloud, and helping them to identify what can be done in the future to ensure it doesn’t happen again. Not only does this mean the pharma company can identify weaknesses in their supply chain, but it also assesses the impact shipping has on quality – saving both money in the long run, and also ensuring a far greater level of patient safety at the other end.
People say that shipping and delivery is never an exact science; that it can’t be truly controlled. But with pharma companies expanding into digitalisation, we can finally say, with confidence, that shipping pharmaceutical drugs has never been more accurate.
Download our white paper to learn more about how to take temperature management to the next level.