COVID-19 vaccine temperature, location tracking pilot is success
The va-Q-tec containers are going to be used for sending Covid-19 vaccines across the world. The vaccines need to be stored in a controlled environment between 2°C and 8°C (about 36°F to 46°F) for at least 96 hours during transportation. According to Fedex, says the company, the pharmaceutical industry is estimated to incur $15 billion in product losses each year due to temperature deviations alone, and approximately 1.5% of all pharmaceutical shipments are marked as scrap due to logistical failures.
SODAQ has developed an ultra-low-power and ultra-thin tracking smart label, which uses a printed battery and, in addition to sensing location it senses impact, acceleration, temperature, and the opening of a box. The solution the company designed for the vaccines comes with a rechargeable standard lithium battery, which, at 6 mm thick, is actually the thickest component of the entire device – all other components such as the Nordic nRF9160 chip, the temperature sensor, USB recharge connector, and the antenna are all slimmer enabling the device to be inserted into the double sided cardboard layer of the transportation box.
The test run involved fifty single shipments, not all of which were with va-Q-tec boxes. All runs performed exactly as intended, says the company, something that does not occur often in proof of concepts using prototypes.
The test included the recharging of the device, reusing the device on the same box, and reusing the device on a new box and shipments to various European countries such as Italy, Poland, Germany, the UK, France, and Spain, and in addition to the US and Canada. In all countries either LTE-M and otherwise NB-IoT connected properly and correctly to the device, says the company.
The global connectivity for the pilot was provided via APIs from IoT Connectivity company monogoto, which provides Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) for secure cellular connectivity. The monogoto connectivity solution includes a self-service management platform and over 400 APIs for flexible product prototyping and production IoT networks.
Programmed to only send data when in rest, the solution can be moved onto airplanes. The solution from SODAQ and Nordic can also handle different types of cooling boxes using liquid nitrogen or dry ice by applying a different temperature sensor (range: -80°C to -20°C).
Attaching a traditional tracker to the outside of a box makes it impossible to stack the boxes and makes the sensor vulnerable, while inserting a device into the box itself is out of the question since the water and aluminum foil keeping the box cool block every signal from within the box, says the company. It solved this by inserting an external temperature sensor into the box and making the sensor so flat it can be stuck between the cardboard or cover of the box.
The device will cost approximately €27.50 (~$33) when produced at over 100,000 units, says the company, whereas alternatives cost three to four times as much or are based on less effective solutions such as beacons, RFID, or Bluetooth – none of which work in all the different environments to which the vaccines will be shipped. the company says that it is actively acquiring customers for the production version of the device.
SODAQ
Nordic Semiconductor
monogoto
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