One year ago the Ebola crisis was plastered all over the news. A few months prior, no-one knew what the disease was, let alone how easily it could spread. The disease spread across West Africa seemingly overnight as the outbreak reached crisis proportions in West Africa. A year on from the Crisis and the story is not yet over. Many families in stricken countries are still rebuilding their lives which were so affected by the ordeal.
We can attribute the recovery of the countries to the pharmaceutical companies as well as the aid given who quickly jumped into the race to develop the Ebola vaccination.
CRS provides 'Superfreezer' to combat Ebola
CRS can proudly announce that it have played a small role in the fight against Ebola through the unique, deep-freezing capabilities of its SuperFreezer container unit.
According to Patrick Tyrell of Ireland-based CRS Pharma Solutions:
“While proper storage and transport temperatures have always been crucial in the pharmaceutical industry, it is vital in new products as the reaction of various components during temperature fluctuations are often unknown. For this reason, companies want to store the product as cold as possible. Thermo King’s SuperFreezer was the answer as it holds temperatures as low as -60 C.”
CRS have been operating since 1992 so have had many years of experience in unique shipping and storage needs of pharmaceuticals and the stakes involved. Patrick Tyrell from CRS explains.
“Naturally, product values are very high. Lost loads can cost millions of dollars,” explained Patrick.
“More than that, especially with trial products, is the time investment. It often takes months to manufacture one active ingredient within a developmental vaccine or medicine, and often it’s in a limited quantity. If that component is compromised due to inadequate storage temperatures, a delay in vaccine availability can occur. While that might hurt a company’s bottom line, the delay could also mean loss of human life; especially in an epidemic such as Ebola.”
CRS has provided excellent cold stores for several of the world-wide epidemic scares including the Swine flu crisis. They take the responsibility of the industry very seriously stating that:
“Relationships are key in this industry,” said Patrick. “They make success stories like this happen.”
The Process
When a long term client approached them a year ago to obtain two reliable deep-freeze containers for shipment of the trial Ebola vaccine, the company did what they could to meet the tight deadlines set.
The ‘SuperFreezer’ was recommended because of how low the temperature can be set. They were needed by the end of February to coincide with the trial vaccine production schedule. CRS partnered with Thermoking representatives to move quickly and they were able to make the deadline. Patrick, along with a Thermo King service representative, was there to greet the shipment and make the inspections.
CRS are leading providers of Pharmaceutical cold stores, blast freezers and cold storage for several industries such as Meat, Catering and Fish cold storage.
