DHL launches logistics service for life sciences products
New offering in collaboration with Cryoport allows shipments to be maintained at very low temperature for at least 10 days
DHL Global Forwarding, the air and ocean freight specialist within Deutsche Post DHL, has enhanced its cold chain logistics offering for the transport of shipments at frozen or cryogenic temperatures with a new service for the life sciences and healthcare industry.
The service will be maintained by LifeConEx, DHL’s temperature management specialist, in collaboration with Cryoport, a provider of global frozen shipping services.
'By introducing this latest solution in collaboration with Cryoport, we are further strengthening our dedication to the life sciences and healthcare industry,' said David Bang, CEO LifeConEx.
'It is specifically designed for customers who require that cryogenic temperature be reliably maintained during storage and transportation of their materials. It also relieves them from more precarious shipping methods such as dry ice or use of hazardous liquid nitrogen.'
The new service combines express delivery with Cryoport’s solution for shipping temperature-sensitive products and biological materials in a deep-frozen state. The integral part of the new service is a non-hazardous liquid nitrogen dry vapour shipper, which has an IATA A152 waiver and is classified as non-hazardous, providing 10 days of holding time at –150ºC in a safe and environmentally friendly manner. Compared with dry ice, which needs to be replenished every few days and is prone to temperature deviations, this technology offers more reliability, which is particularly critical for fragile and temperature-sensitive biomaterials, the company says.
The solution will include a temperature monitoring tool and customers will be able to track their shipments at any given time online.
The new service is an addition to DGF’s other temperature-controlled services and complementary to DHL Express’ Medical Express by uniting the global Life Sciences & Healthcare network of DHL with Cryoport’s advanced solution for deep frozen logistics.
Cryoport Express shippers are validated to maintain a constant cryogenic temperature and mitigate degradation concerns and the loss of high-value, temperature-sensitive materials.