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Voice of the experts: Controlled room temperature packaging considerations

Healthcare Packaging (HCP) speaks with Mark Davis, UPS Healthcare Logistics Manager, who specializes in temperature-sensitive solutions, about packaging and shipping temperature-sensitive products.

HCP: Tell us about Controlled room temperature, or CRT, in the pharmaceutical and biologics market.

Davis: Controlled room temperature is something that has become increasing popular in the temperature-controlled transportation market in the past few years, providing an additional specific temperature-sensitive category for products.

An issue we have with CRT is that most people in the market still see it as ambient or room temperature. Thus, they try to move that product through a very complex supply chain, without properly protecting it. So when they do that they put the product and client (or manufacturer) at risk.

HCP: Isn’t CRT clearly defined and why is it generating so much interest today?

Davis: The biggest challenge that we have in today’s world with CRT is that nobody has truly defined what it is. So we know that it ranges anywhere between 10°C and 30°C, but within that, you have probably four or five variations depending upon whom you ask, because it really is not defined as it’s relatively new to the cold chain market.

Most shippers don’t adequately protect their product. The product is shipped in simple corrugated cases and moved within the small parcel package or freight network without having any type of protection. It is often assumed that room temperature is room temperature, and regardless of how it is transported, it’s going to be safe. That’s really not the case. If we look at one particular range for CRT, it’s 20°C to 25°C. It’s very, very tight. In order to maintain that specific temperature within our network, it must be properly packaged.

So to help clients out with CRT products we conduct a temperature study with them, looking at the complete range—from a freight perspective and from a small package perspective. The study monitors the temperature and shipping conditions, such as weather, within our network. This process allows our customers to take a look at this data and together, we develop packaging solutions or create tailored-packaging that’s designed to protect their product in their particular lanes within our network. So we’re not going to choose packaging for them, but we can give them options on what is appropriate for their product within our network. That’s where UPS Temperature True® Packaging comes in.

HCP: Describe some of the challenges manufacturers may not be aware of in the distribution of their products.

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