The Future Of Shipping Solutions In Modern Medicine: Reusable Vs. Single-Use Shippers

The ability of biologic drugs to deliver better targeted therapies for a wide range of unmet medical needs is a primary reason this area of drug development has seen a significant increase over the last decade.¹ As drug manufacturers continue to advance medicine with new discoveries in technology and science, the dominance of biologics is expected to continue, with experts predicting them to comprise more than a quarter of the pharmaceutical market by 2020.²

However, with the cost of developing a new pharmaceutical drug now exceeding $2.6 billion,³ drug manufacturers must explore new technologies and strategies to help protect these innovative medicines. Specifically, safeguarding a drug’s journey from the facility to the patient is a critical part of securing the efficacy and safety of products that involve the use of living organisms. Various temperature-controlled shipping solutions, such as single-use shippers, are available that can maintain a product’s temperature from 48 up to 120 hours. 

Yet, while many companies still rely on this type of solution for shipping, another option exists in reusable shippers. These typically multi-use thermal packaging solutions provide customers with a potentially more cost-effective way of improving payload volume efficiency while lowering distribution costs and reducing the carbon footprint of drug delivery. And with asset management systems available that can track the location of a reusable shipper, concerns about returns are mitigated, opening up a new opportunity for any manufacturer seeking a greener way to transport their temperature-sensitive payloads.