Protecting A Temperature-Critical Healing Innovation In Storage And Shipping

Whether it's a skinned knee, a shaving nick or a hot-water scald, most of us have injured our outer layer of skin at some point. Usually the injury heals within a couple of weeks. But for people with diabetes, sometimes wounds may not heal.

Enter Advanced BioHealing (ABH), a California-based Shire company that makes Dermagraft, a living cell product that can help treat the wounds of patients with diabetic foot ulcers. Dermagraft is a bioengineered skin substitute made of living tissue and takes months to produce. Its storage and shipment are complex, as it's cryopreserved and its temperature must be kept at minus-75 degrees Celsius.

Mike Whitmore, ABH's logistics manager, explains that before turning to UPS's healthcare logistics, the company faced two additional challenges. First, it was running out of storage space; when operating at maximum capacity, the company can produce more than 300,000 units of Dermagraft per year. Second, keeping its entire inventory in one location posed a risk to the supply.

"I had my hands on everything here," Whitmore says. "It wasn't in my nature to let somebody else take over this process for us." Yet Whitmore knew he needed to find a partner that could protect his product and his customers.