PLUSS Advanced Technologies (PLUSS), a Delhi based company, in collaboration with Apollo Supply Chain, part of the Apollo International Group, has set up a 20,000 sqft facility in Hyderabad, for packaging boxes for temperature sensitive vaccines, pharmaceuticals and biologics.
The boxes maintain inside temperature without electricity at desired levels for over 4 days, using ‘phase change materials’ technology. The facility has the capacity to condition boxes for transporting the equivalent of 3 to 5 million vaccine doses per month and will cater to the various vaccine and pharma manufacturers in and around Hyderabad.
Samit Jain, CEO, PLUSS, said, “With the installation of this facility, the burden of creating a cold chain logistics infrastructure for pharmaceutical companies can be reduced. Shared resources always make a lot of sense, in the long run, it reduces costs and expenses for everyone in the endeavour to increase access to temperature-sensitive healthcare products. The boxes come pre-fitted with temperature sensors and monitoring of temperature is seamless.”
Raaja Kanwar, VC & MD, Apollo LogiSolutions, said, “This facility addresses the obligation on pharmaceutical companies to create a cold-chain supply infrastructure for the vaccines.”
The temperature-sensitive boxes, called Celsure boxes, are customizable and can maintain temperature from -70 to +30 degree Celsius, in 35 different ranges. The boxes are also used to transport Covid-19 vaccines, which require temperatures in the range +15 to +25, -15 to -25, and +2 to +8 degree Celsius. The Celsure box serves as a better and safer alternative to dry ice and conventional ice-packs, and brings about operational and cost efficiency in transporting temperature-sensitive cargo, including pharmaceutical products, vaccines and foodstuff.
PLUSS has partnered with pharmaceutical companies across India for transporting their products using Celsure boxes and also exports Celsure boxes and its ‘phase change materials’ to pharma packaging suppliers in Europe and the USA. PLUSS has received a patent for the Celsure box from the United States Patent and Trademark Office and the European Patent Office in Germany and has applied for a patent in India, Singapore and Brazil.
