Thermo King, a global leader in intelligent end-to-end temperature-controlled cold chain solutions and a brand of Trane Technologies, is leveraging its well-established partnership with va-Q-tec by preconditioning their temperature storage elements and containers with its Cold Storage Solutions to meet the exact temperature requirements for reliable vaccine distribution.
va-Q-tec, a pioneer and manufacturer of highly efficient thermal containers and boxes for temperature-controlled logistics equipped the majority of their current 40 worldwide stations with Thermo King Magnum Plus and SuperFreezer refrigerated containers. These Thermo King containers can maintain stable temperature set-points between -70 degrees Celsius to + 30 degrees Celsius allowing va-Q-tec to precondition the temperature storage elements (also referred to as PCM ‘phase changing materials’) used in their passive containers and boxes to the precise temperature required by the pharmaceutical companies and ensure the best possible service quality.
“Considering the urgent, global need for a COVID-19 vaccine, and the vast quantities of vaccine that need to be distributed, the world can’t afford breaks in the cold chain,” said Francesco Incalza, president of Thermo King Europe, Middle East and Africa. “At Thermo King we are helping ensure the vaccine gets to the people who need it, and that means working closely with industry leaders like va-Q-tec, with the pharma companies producing viable vaccines and the distribution companies they plan to work with. The most important thing is helping to support safe – and fast – delivery of the vaccine to people around the world.”
“va-Q-tec has many years of experience with international pharmaceutical temperature controlled supply chains (TempChain) in many different temperature ranges, giving pharmaceutical companies access to world’s largest fleet of passively temperature-controlled high-tech rental containers,” said Dr. Joachim Kuhn, CEO and founder of va-Q-tec. “We have been working with Thermo King for several years now, and their technology solutions have always offered optimal stability even in as low temperature as -70 degrees Celsius. We are very proud of the good, reliable collaboration.”
Currently, Thermo King and va-Q-tec‘s are providing solutions to transport vaccines in majority of the federal states in Germany, and also in Spain, Uruguay and Singapore among others.