SOUTH AFRICA – HELIUM and natural gas company Renergen has successfully operated its first Cryo-Vacc prototype, which has been designed and patented to transport and store ultra-cold biologics for up to 25 days or longer, where access to an external power source is not possible.
Companies and governments around the world are working on ways to establish cold chain storage and delivery systems for vaccines such as Pfizer and BioNTech shots which must be shipped and stored at ultra-cold temperatures and can only last at standard fridge temperatures for up to five days.
The Cryo-Vacc has a temperature range of -150ºC to 8ºC.
The increasing requirement to transport vaccines through ultra-cold transport has arisen through the development of some of the Covid-19 vaccines.
The cold chain monitoring and asset tracking in the transport solution is from Beyond Wireless Proprietary, a World Health Organization performance, quality, and safety-certified remote temperature monitoring solution provider.
“We are excited to bring our extensive coverage and best-in-breed, technology-driven delivery services to enable mission-critical vaccine distribution using Cryo-Vacc”
Anton Visagie – CEO, DPD Laser
The CryoVacc can provide accurate temperature readings of the vaccines while in transit, as well as GPS tracking to ensure the custody chain can be audited.
Renergen said in a statement that CryoVac was ideal for both air and ground transportation, utilising liquid nitrogen to transport by road and helium to transport by air.
With the recent release of the National Department of Health tender for the distribution of vaccines in South Africa, Renergen had teamed up with local express courier partner DPD Laser, of The Laser Group.
“We are excited to bring our extensive coverage and best-in-breed, technology-driven delivery services to enable mission-critical vaccine distribution using Cryo-Vacc,” said DPD Laser chief executive Anton Visagie.
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