BioLife unleashes ULT trailers

A new fleet of refrigerated and ultra-low temperature vehicles enhances domestic cold chain services for biopharma customers, the company says.

Commercial Vehicle Staff

June 9, 2022

2 min read

Bothell, Washington-based BioLife Solutions reports its SciSafe biostorage services platform now offers a fleet of refrigerated and ultra-low temperature (ULT) truck-trailers to manage local cold chain movements for customers’ biologic materials.

BioLife is a supplier of bioproduction tools and services for biopharma markets.

This company’s new reefer fleet will provide a transportation solution for any biologic product movement requiring ULT storage between minus-20 degrees C and minus-196 degrees C, without the added need for dry ice as it moves from pharmaceutical manufacturer to contract development and manufacturing company (CDMO) sites and can be deployed worldwide, the company said. Running on generator power with two cooling systems, the fleet also can carry up to 10 plugged-in, powered, and running-upright ULT freezers at a time, expanding supported temperatures to as low as minus-86 degres C, with equipment to track location and trailer temperatures in real time. The temperature-controlled trailers also can transport liquid nitrogen storage freezers containing biologic materials stored at minus-150 degrees C and colder.

Large pharmaceutical companies face significant challenges when moving high-value assets that have stringent storage temperature requirements, and BioLife’s new domestic transport service enables operational flexibility and reduced risk through the same provider SciSafe customers already trust with their sample management, the company added.

“Our ability to move client biomaterials safely at ultra-low temperatures is highly valued by pharmaceutical, and cell and gene therapy companies,” said Mike Rice, chairman and CEO of BioLife. “This service also highly complements our internal use of our portfolio of cold chain products, including the evo DV10 Smart Shipper, Stirling Ultracold freezers, and cryogenic liquid nitrogen storage freezers.

“These controlled-temperature trailers expand the volume, as well as the type of materials that can be moved and, in turn, increase the value we can offer our customers.”