From EpiPens and insulin to GLP-1 and COVID-19 vaccines, many are unaware of the vital role refrigeration plays in the movement and storage of prescription drugs and pharmaceuticals. While most companies use compressor-based refrigeration technology to store prescription drugs, Phononic, a technology company that has revolutionized the way products are heated and cooled, stands out in the industry with its solid-state cooling technology.
Dana Krug, Senior Vice President of Cold Chain Fulfillment at Phononic, spoke to Drug Topics about the importance of refrigeration for the medications patients use every day and how Phononic's innovative, yet effective technology is disrupting the industry and helping pharmacies maximize their profits.
Klug explained how Phononic's disruptive yet effective technology is shaking up the industry and helping pharmacies maximize their profits. Image Credit: Unic / stock.adobe.com
In part one of his interview with Drug Topics, Krug shared an overview of Phononic and how the company is revolutionizing the industry in the midst of global warming and rising temperatures.
Pharmaceutical Topic: What are some examples of medicines and drugs that utilize specific types of cooling technology?
Dana Klug: Any of the GLP drugs, weight loss drugs, we're seeing an explosion. We're seeing a doubling of the need for refrigeration as prescriptions are filled. But we're also seeing a need for refrigeration with drugs like insulin, and that's been going on for a long time. Any of the protein-based vaccines need refrigeration. Other things that most people don't really think about that need temperature control are things like birth control and EpiPens. Those might not need the temperatures that people think of as refrigeration, like 55 to 75 degrees Fahrenheit, but they still need control. From that standpoint, you can't store them in a warehouse at 120 degrees Fahrenheit without control. If you go even lower, down to sub-freezing temperatures like 20 degrees below zero, you start to see an increase in chicken pox and single vaccines. You're going to see that need. Those are probably more common.
Then you get into ultra-low temperatures. This is not something that Phononic deals with, but if you're in a field like the Pfizer vaccine for COVID-19, you actually need to get it down to minus 80 degrees, or even minus 61 degrees. Ultra-low temperatures. Not in our field. But the majority of the cooling is actually above 2 to 8 degrees Celsius, which translates to 36 to 44 degrees. I'd say the majority is there. But like I said, in a lot of other fields that are very common to most people, you actually need cooling, or at least temperature control.
Medication Topic: How would you explain the importance of keeping certain prescription medications cool during the hotter summer months and with the increasing global warming of the past few decades?
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Dana Klug: When we talk about global warming, I think it's important to point out that our solutions actually help mitigate global warming. The refrigerants that we use in all of our products are water and carbon dioxide. So our global warming potential is actually less than one compared to compressor-based systems and dry ice. But in compressor-based systems, the refrigerants can have a global warming potential of over 1000. So you can see that there's a big difference between what we're making and using for cooling and the traditional systems that exist. I think the target average was looking to get the global warming potential down to about 700, but again, we're staying below 1.
It's similar to the factory story. You have to maintain the cold chain from the point you take the medicine out of the refrigeration system and start packaging. Moving around in the warehouse is one area that is a little easier to maintain, but you can still face issues. During the summer, even in factories, some factories have to worry about heat, especially if the factory is storing at an elevation of 30-40 feet. Air conditioning systems are not made to cool the factory uniformly. You have to keep each medicine at the right temperature. With our tote bags, you can specifically set sub-points if you want to maintain the temperature of a particular medicine.
As we get more outdoors in the summer, temperatures can reach 120 degrees in Arizona. If you load the bed of a van with products that are reaching 120-130 degrees, most of the products that need to be cooled will start to deteriorate. The problem that often occurs with the methods that are done today are more passive cooling. They throw in dry ice or gel packs. The problem with that is that they're all time-based. If you get stuck in traffic and your delivery is delayed, all of your products will actually start to go out of spec. And because there's no monitoring for each load, the driver doesn't realize that the products they're delivering in the bed of the van are getting warmer. During the summer, morning temperatures can go up to 60 degrees or even 100 degrees. You need something that can work within that range and let the driver or someone know when there's going to be an issue, instead of when the issue is already there.
We look at our tote system as an active cooling solution. We call it an active cooling solution because it not only cools, but if something does happen, it notifies the customer in advance of the actual degradation of the product so that the customer can act on that information and remove the product or move it to another tote as needed. It's about actively monitoring all of the medications in transit from the time they enter our warehouse to the time they arrive curbside at the customer's house. And it allows us to accurately describe and document that the medications were delivered at the right temperature.
Phononic is the only company I know that can leverage the modifications we've made to solid-state cooling. We're the only company that can actually get below freezing using this technology and has it deployed commercially. However, it's not actively used across the industry. You still see a lot of passive cooling with gel packs, ice packs, dry ice, or you're forced to use refrigerated trucks and dry ice, which is very expensive and you don't have the ability to monitor what's going on.
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