Founded in 1990 and went public in 2005, Cryoport has since become one of the most trusted cold-chain logistics solution provider. Cryoport caters to the need of cold-transportation requirements in industries like Biopharmaceutical, animal health and IVF (In Vitro Fertilization). Cryoport is a member of ISBER (International society for Biological and Environmental Repositories) and is also a recipient of Cold Chain Global Forum Excellence Awards.Cryoport’s technology is capable of handling specimen at the required cryogenic temperature for upto 10 days as compared to 2-3 days with conventional technologies.
This increased holding time minimizes the risk of material damage that may arise due to unexpected delays attributing to weather or custom holds. Also unlike dry ice (carbon dioxide) – a greenhouse gas that contributes to global warming, Cryoport uses liquid nitrogen “dry vapour” technology that allows nitrogen to evaporate harmlessly. Due to use of nitrogen instead of dry ice, Cryoport has much lesser regulatory restrictions. International Air transport Association (IATA) classifies it as non-hazardous and hence no special handling is required. Incase of dry ice, it must be labelled hazardous and countries can simply refuse to allow shipment within their territories, thus creating major obstacles for global shipping of biological materials.Cryoport strives to continuously expand its client base through performance and partnerships. Infrastructure and technology developed by Cryoport has made possible for partnerships with global shipping giants which include FedEx, DHL and UPS.
With Head Quarters in California, USA, and strategically positioned depots in Singapore and Netherlands, Cryoport operates in 100 countries across the globe. Moreover, partnerships with well-established shipping companies enable operation of cold-chain logistics to almost any part of the world.Cryoport also offers storage and fulfilment services to its clients in order to optimize their supply chain and inventory management.
The client can either store at Cryoport’s specialized storage containers that can accommodate from five to 5 lakh vials or at the clients own location. For the latter, Cryoport provides storage containers on lease, install, qualify and monitor them for material storage. This minimizes the investment at client’s end. Earlier, dry ice was utilized in order to keep the temperature of temperature sensitive bio-materials in check, which also required frequent re-icing during transportation. Cryoport introduced its own liquid nitrogen technology to keep the temperature of frozen materials below -150C.
The temperature can be maintained for upto 10 days and hence eliminates the need of re-icing as in dry-ice shipping. Cryoport termed its shippers as Cryoport Express and the most advanced shipping containers available in the market. Cryoport Express is scientifically engineered to ensure the most temperature sensitive material is kept in exacting conditions and sample integrity is maintained, thus making it more than just a container.Once the client places an order through Cryoportal, a dewar is sent which is pre-charged with liquid nitrogen to the origin of the specimen shipment.
As per the information provided by the client in the portal, Cryoport prepares the entire documentation (regulatory labels, invoices, destination labels etc.) required during the transit and attaches it to the dewar. Upon receipt of the dewar, the client has to simply load in the materials and hand it over to the allotted carrier. At the receiver’s end, the recipient has to unload the material and make the dewar available for pickup. This simple process is what helped Cryoport establish a wide client-base.
The Dewar is equipped with Smartpack II monitoring system that keeps track of all the parameters affecting the material quality and help in any pro-active measures required to be taken. Each dewar is returned after every shipment for restoring and reconditioning, thus decreasing the environmental impact.Since the industries that Cryoport cater to handle materials that are temperature-sensitive, Cryoport has in its arsenal proprietary Cryoport Express which are liquid nitrogen dry vapour shippers capable of maintaining cryogenic temperatures of -150C for a period of 10 days. This technologically superior solution makes it ideal to ship bio-materials such as stem cells, vaccines, semen, embryos, etc. Cryoport has introduced its custom built logistics management platform called Cryoportal. Cryoportal enables client to witness the complete cold-chain process with round the clock access to the shipment’s location and condition. The portal also gives client additional recommendation on ideal shipping lane by commodity, carrier preferences, and customizable alerts.
Equipment qualification data, material condition monitoring and all logistics are consolidated into a single integrated data stream. The trust clients have on Cryoport is due to its superior technology that monitors the shipment during the entire transit. Cryoport’s Smartpak II condition monitoring system tracks the most important parameters impacting the material handling. The system is equipped with various sensors that monitors internal and external temperature, barometric pressure changes, humidity, light and orientation of the container. GPS, cellular and Wi-Fi triangulation is utilized for real time tracking of the shipment.
The system also actively records the time and location of any uneven shocks to the shipment.Coupled with Cryoportal, Smartpack II is configured to provide the client with non-stop visibility of their material from origin till it reaches the destination.
