Biocair: Tracking Cell & Gene Therapy Shipments

Location, Location, Location: Tive Real-Time Tracking Checks All Boxes for Cell & Gene Therapy Shipments

A specialist courier with over 35 years of experience, Biocair delivers industry-leading logistics solutions in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and life sciences sectors. None of its services is more critical than cell and gene therapy (CGT) supply chain management. The goal of Cell and Gene Therapies is to find the root cause, treat, and prevent genetic diseases. As one might surmise, this biomedical research comes with a hefty price tag. According to global consulting firm Mercer, cell therapies typically cost nearly $500,000, and gene therapies might exceed $1 million per treatment course. With that much at stake with each shipment, it’s understandable that clients demand complete visibility and stellar customer service.

Listening to clients and embracing the latest technologies to better serve them is engrained in Biocair’s DNA and is a primary reason behind its growth. For instance, in late 2021, Biocair set out to upgrade its overall cold chain packaging. Temperature control was just one facet of the project; CGT customers also wanted enhanced real-time location tracking data and insights at their fingertips.

After an exhaustive search, Biocair found in Tive a partner with an equal passion for customer service and supply chain technology.

The Situation

Biocair was already using data loggers and other devices to capture in-transit information for cold chain shipments but required a robust 5G capable solution.

Emily Gaither, Biocair’s Packaging Solutions Coordinator, knew the evolving guidelines and customer expectations for the shipping and handling of CGT shipments demanded a deeper level of monitoring and communication than the service-level capabilities of other devices. Tive’s Solo 5G connectivity and hyper-accurate location updates in real time was in line with industry changes and could provide what CGT clients wanted:

• The ability to get and share milestone updates in real time: Everyone wants to know, “Where’s my shipment?” at all times. Providing updated information to clients is more challenging without real-time location tracking via GPS capabilities.‍
• Supply nimbleness and responsiveness: CGT requests are extremely time critical and urgent. Supply chain partners must have full oversight and be ready to react at a moment’s notice, to ensure that deliveries proceed as required.‍
• Assurance of maintaining GDP compliance: Biocair must follow good distribution practices (GDP) requirements to store and transport products to ensure safety and security throughout the supply chain.

"As Biocair grows, we want to bring along Tive devices."

Emily Gaither
Packaging Solutions Coordinator, Biocair

The Solution

Biocair did its homework, researching new technology and gathering intel before narrowing the field to Tive and a few other suppliers. This involved comparative analysis testing against other devices, including but not limited to evaluating connectivity over static and dynamic routing tests and comprehensive temperature data analysis against reference data loggers.

Tive emerged as the clear choice for several reasons:

• Better overall performance
• User-friendly platform
• Ease of setup and quick initial training/onboarding
• Fully customizable alerts and transmission intervals
• Outstanding customer service and technical support
• 5G future proofing

Biocair uses the Solo 5G tracker, which features real-time location GPS tracking capabilities accurate to within +10m anywhere in the world. Available for single-use or multi-use and with lithium or non-lithium batteries, the Solo 5G is programmable (measurement and communication transmission intervals) and features sensors to record real-time data relative to humidity, light, motion, shock, and temperature. The Tive cloud-based platform delivers real-time alerts based on user-configurable thresholds when there is a disruption or threat.

“Tive checks all of the technology boxes,” Emily Gaither said. “An easy to navigate customer portal, 5G real-time location and temperature monitoring, and all the things that are fast-becoming must-haves in terms of supply chain tracking—humidity, shock events, and light exposure.”

“There are comparable trackers on the market,
but Tive’s location accuracy is the best. Their
devices are ahead of the game.”

Emily Gaither

The Results

Once the Biocair team fully qualified Tive’s Solo 5G GPS trackers, they began to integrate the trackers to gain hyper-accurate location data on CGT shipments for preclinical work and clinical trials. This phase included more than 30 successful live shipments to a wide range of CGT clients in cities such as Los Angeles, Chicago, and Frankfurt, Germany, to name a few.

“Biocair is growing rapidly, and we are a client-centric company,” said Emily. “Our partnership with Tive demonstrates to our clients that we remain on the cutting edge of technology and medicine to better serve them.”

In the six months since this relationship began, the benefits are clear:

• Hyper-accurate location data on every CGT shipment: Led to recovering a shipment the airline carrier said was lost after not making it onto its scheduled flight. Tive immediately pinpointed its exact location at LAX Airport.
• Mitigation made easy: Accessing Tive’s online platform and seeing real-time alerts help Biocair’s team make data-driven decisions when disruption threatens or occurs. This streamlines communication and helps expedite ordering replacement shipments when needed.
• Increased customer satisfaction: Biocair representatives can immediately answer client questions about their shipments.
• Access to Tive customer support:Tive is available 24/7 to solve issues and handle last-minute customization requests from Biocair customers.
• Improved sustainability: Biocair can more efficiently retrieve and reuse reusable packaging using the Solo 5G tracker’s real-time data.

"Tive positions us to be proactive—rather than reactive."

Emily Gaither