Technology
Fisher BioServices Adopts
Credo Container for
Flu Vaccines
A bio services firm plans expanded use of Minnesota Thermal
Science’s shippers.
By David Vaczek
Senior Editor
As a provider of logistics, laboratory, and repository services
for clinical trials, Thermo Fisher
Scientific’s Fisher BioServices (
Rockville, MD) ships temperature-sensitive
drugs, patient specimens, collection and
shipping kits, and bulk supplies to sites
around the world. The contract services
business stores more than 120 million
samples including blood, urine, tissue,
environmental, and active pharmaceutical
ingredients.
When transporting samples and kitting
supplies, Fisher BioServices must ensure
that payloads arrive at clinical sites, laboratories, and repository depots in an
efficacious manner, says Bruce Simpson,
senior director, commercial services division operations, Fisher BioServices.
Fisher BioServices recently adopted
containers from Minnesota Thermal Science (MTS; Plymouth, MN) for temperature-sensitive domestic shipments
supporting a clinical trial. Simpson says
Fisher plans to expand its use of MTS
cold-chain shippers for payload protection
over international routes.
Fisher BioServices initiated a relationship with MTS when it was looking for a
better cold-chain solution to gain a competitive advantage in the marketplace.
Fisher extensively evaluated MTS’s shipping containers. Validated under various ambient conditions and profiles, the
shippers’ performance stood out when
PHOTO BY: JEFFREY A. DAVIS PHOTOGRAPHY
Used by Fisher BioServices’ for clinical trial packaging, MTS’s Credo shippers have demonstrated temperature maintenance of seven days.
compared with packouts using commercially available boxes and insulation,
Simpson says.
Fisher was using cardboard containers
with expanded polystyrene and gel packs,
or dry ice for –60° to 80° F, and dry
cryogenic shippers with liquid nitrogen.
“Our engineers found that MTS’s
boxes were far superior to the conventional packouts they were testing. If the
thermal isolation chambers [TIC] containing phase-change material [PCM] are
appropriately tempered, and the package
is packed out as designed, the perfor-
