UPS is expanding its specialty pharmaceutical offerings by establishing UPS Cold Chain Solutions, which will bring full suite of end-to-end cold chain capabilities to its customers worldwide.

In a statement, it said the Cold Chain Solutions consists of a comprehensive suite of cold chain technologies and new and expanded global facilities providing complete, end-to-end temperature-controlled logistics.

“Our customers have been taking advantage of our cold chain capabilities for years, but the pandemic caused UPS to move even faster to enhance an integrated set of cold chain solutions to support the future of the pharmaceutical and medical device industry,” said Wes Wheeler, UPS Healthcare president.

“UPS’s near-perfect, on-time delivery of the COVID-19 vaccine proves how effectively and efficiently our network handles biologically derived drugs, even at extreme temperatures.”

Growth in demand for cold chain services

Citing a Biopharma Cold Chain Sourcebook, UPS noted that cold chain trends show 48% growth between 2018 and 2024 for drugs that require at least 2 to 8 degrees Celsius storage and shipping.

Additionally, it said that the overall market for cold chain services (packaging, transportation, and data services) is expected to significantly accelerate growth over the next three years, growing by 24% by 2024, after posting a 10% increase from 2019 to 2020.

“The future of the healthcare and specialty pharmaceutical industries will increasingly rely on robust cold chain networks to safely deliver temperature-controlled drugs and therapies to customers,” said Kate Gutmann, UPS chief sales and solutions officer and SVP, UPS Global Healthcare.

“The continued evolution of our cold chain offerings ensures UPS is ready for the future and can continue to provide long-term value for our healthcare customers,” she added.

UPS noted that Cold Chain Solutions is purpose-built to provide pharmaceutical companies, healthcare providers, and laboratories a full, end-to-end cold chain service offering, including storage and distribution, transportation, visibility, and quality assurance capabilities to meet their complex demands for critical products around the world.

As part of a continued, aggressive strategy to build sophisticated capabilities in cold chain logistics, UPS said it is expanding and augmenting its temperature-controlled products and services including the addition of cold chain GMP storage capacities – roughly 390,000 square feet of coolers and freezers installed at UPS facilities to support the storage of biologics ranging from 2 degrees Celsius to as low as minus-80 degrees Celsius.

UPS will also offer packaging customization – which are recommendations for specific temperature-controlled packaging options to minimize total cost while ensuring safe and efficient transportation of products.

The multinational logistics company also noted that it will be expanding its European cold chain ground network expansion, among others.

UPS noted that it will continue to make investments to push its cold chain logistics offerings.