Plymouth Packaging Company Plays Critical Role in COVID-19 Vaccine Deliveries
The COVID-19 vaccine is being rolled out across the state with more shipments to come. Plymouth-based Pelican BioThermal is playing a crucial role in the deliveries.
Pelican BioThermal is a global supplier in temperature-controlled packaging. Pharmaceutical companies around the world rely on the company’s chilled containers to ship and transfer materials including finished products and sample drugs.
“Crēdo and CoolGuard are our main brands we use,” explained Dave Williams, president of Pelican BioThermal. “Crēdo is a reusable line, which means customers can reuse shipment after shipment. CoolGuard is more single use where it may go to parts of the world, where it’s harder to get the container back.”
Pelican BioThermal Crēdo Cube packaging.
Williams said the company has long offered packaging to keep materials at specific temperatures, such as -4 and -58 degrees Fahrenheit. But because COVID-19 vaccines require even colder temperatures, there’s been a demand to expand the product line.
The company is now offering deep frozen packaging that covers temperatures as low as -76 and -112 degrees Fahrenheit. The technology uses phase change materials (PCMs) and dry ice systems to provide frozen payload protection with a duration of three to seven days.
“We’ve seen significant increases in that demand over the last six months,” said Williams. “That’s been some of our newer offerings is the deep frozen.”
The company has shipped an excessive 40,000 deep frozen containers in the last few months. Williams said the products aren’t just boxes, it directly affects lives.
“We all realize what we do is important, regardless whether we’re in a pandemic or not,” said Williams.
- Click here for more stories about local companies playing a critical role during COVID-19.
