Taking Pharmaceutical Cold Chain to the Next Level with Modular Real-Time Monitoring

In June 2021, I held a webinar on modular real-time monitoring in the pharmaceutical cold chain together with Berlinger’s Head of Research & Development Bernd Heisterkamp and CEO Thomas Bechter. In the following, I summarize the key messages from the webinar, share our learnings from the audience and take you behind the scenes into technology that’s currently under development.

Innovation has been at the core of Berlinger’s DNA since 1865, and this is where we put our efforts and investments. We are on a mission to take monitoring solutions for the pharmaceutical industry to the next level by delivering groundbreaking developments that open new doors for our customers. In the webinar, we unpacked our new SmartSystem, which is based on the following three pillars: modular real-time technology, cost reduction, and sustainability.

We have actively involved our customers in the development of the SmartSystem right from the start to understand their major challenges and to ensure a customer-centered solution and maximum user-friendliness. This webinar was an ideal format to get in touch with industry stakeholders and get valuable feedback from the audience by asking them poll questions related to their experience in pharmaceutical cold chain.

The outcome of the poll questions reinforced the feedback which we have received from our customers in previous interviews. Over 50 percent of the attendees consider the availability of data as a key challenge in condition monitoring. It confirms that automation and integration are key requirements within the pharmaceutical cold chain. SmartSystem delivers exactly that and at the same time, it allows our customers to reduce costs.

I was also pleased to see that 80 percent of the audience responded that recycling, re-use, and a zero-impact product are on top of their agenda. This corresponds with our strategic vision and proves that we are on the right track with our SmartSystem sustainability vision.

Sustainability is an important part of our vision, which we pursue to serve our customers, but also to improve as a company. To name just one example, we have implemented a clever ice-heating system at our Swiss production site. The system works without gas and uses the extracted energy to heat the building in summer and cool it in winter. This allowed us to reduce our CO2 emissions by a factor of seven.

An interesting question we received from the audience is what to consider when moving from non-real-time to real-time monitoring of the pharmaceutical cold chain. Let me comment on this: With real-time, it is always a system approach, and you need to keep in mind that it is not a “fire and forget” solution. It is a combination of hardware and software. In the end, it is the data what adds real value.

Real-time requires a mindset change for many organizations. New processes are necessary and if you as a company choose this path, you need to ensure that all relevant internal and external stakeholders are involved. We support our customers in identifying the important elements and analyzing their business cases together with them, as this is of crucial importance.

Let me conclude by taking you behind the scenes of the SmartSystem development. Bernd and his team are responsible for the implementation of the identified business requirements. The international team based across Europe consists of a group of experts in the field of cloud software, firmware, and hardware development. In particular, our software engineering hub in the Netherlands together with the central R&D hub at our Swiss headquarters play important roles for the SmartSystem development. The team is super excited to be working on cutting-edge technology and developing a solution that will help patients stay safe.

Webinar outlook: Berlinger is keen to follow up soon with another webinar where participants will learn more about the integration of SmartSystem in their system environment. Watch Berlinger’s on-demand pharmaceutical cold chain webinar now and get notified about future events.

This article was created in collaboration with the sponsoring company and the Xtalks editorial team.