Pharmaceuticals are, in one sense, one of the most valuable types of cargo that can be transported. They are often critical in easing pain, treating disease and, on a regular basis, saving lives. However, pharmaceuticals despite being powerful substances are not durable. Pharmaceuticals are made at very specific manufacturing sites, under tightly controlled conditions, but then often have vast distances to travel to reach the hospitals and clinics that need them.
Sometimes they travel across a state, sometimes across a country, and sometimes even all the way to the other side of the planet. These transportation times can take hours, days, or even weeks depending on situation. And this is where an important question must be asked. Just how safe are these pharmaceuticals, and what are the dangers that face them?
Temperature
In terms of pharmaceutical safety, viability, and structural integrity, this is the #1 concern. Without proper attention paid to things like passive temperature control, a stable temperature can’t be maintained. If a stable temperature isn’t maintained, this can have very serious effects on the effectiveness of certain pharmaceuticals, in some cases, negating their usefulness entirely.
Lorazepam, for instance, is a popular medication that is often used to help treat anxiety disorders or as a sleeping aid. This medicine is generally recommended to be stored at temperatures between 65-80°F. If this is ignored, and the temperature is allowed to rise to 100°F or more, as can happen during a heat wave, this can reduce the effectiveness of lorazepam by as much as 75%.
Extrapolate this to an entire shipment that has been kept in a truck without proper active and passive temperature control mechanisms, and the results can be disastrous. If that truck is moving through a state experiencing a heat wave, and there is nothing in the freight container to regulate the temperature, then that’s a load of medication that is now only about ¼ effective as originally intended.
Theft
Sadly, another reason that pharmaceuticals are often under threat is because of their inherent value. Opioids, for example, are not something that can easily be manufactured in a home lab in the same way that some drugs, like crystal meth are. Instead, opioid and opiate abuse and sales generally come from “the source,” doctors willing to prescribe these pharmaceuticals to addicts, or through theft, either from hospitals or from freight as it is being transported to its destination.
In fact, when it comes to theft of pharmaceuticals, 90% of it occurs from trucks, and this, of course, is due to the immense street value of certain drugs if they are allowed to hit the black market. So while protecting the efficacy of pharmaceuticals with proper temperature control is vital, it is also important for transport companies to take proper risk assessments and see where a cargo is most vulnerable to theft. In some cases, it may be during the loading, or the unloading. It may even be when the truck stops to refuel, or the driver finally gets some well-deserved rest and sleeps after a shift.
Both temperature and theft protection are crucial in ensuring the safety of your pharmaceuticals during transport!
