As COVID-19 developed into a worldwide pandemic and pharmaceutical companies concentrated efforts to develop a vaccine, its safe and effective transportation became vitally important.  The latest Sartorius products, the 12L Celsius® FFT and FFTp with Safecore™ Technology, now available to help pharmaceutical companies with distribution of the COVID vaccine, were aided by the testing developed and implemented by DTB.

 

Our relationship with Sartorius, a global leader supporting bio pharmaceutical companies as they bring new drugs to market, began back in the summer of 2017.  The partnership began when Sartorius engineers were tasked with designing containment and delivery systems with the ability to keep live cell culture medications safe during packaging and distribution.  One container of live culture medicine has significant dollar value and each bulk shipper, consisting of several of these containers, is worth millions of dollars.

 

DTB worked closely with Sartorius engineers brainstorming various testing solutions for their single use, sterile, pre-assembled container systems for storage and transportation of bulk drug substances.  The solution included the design and fabrication of a chamber for extreme low temperature (-80°C) storage and conditioning.  The chamber design incorporated a plenum to help distribute air flow uniformly over the faces of the container.

 

The Celsius® FFT and FFTp with Safecore™ Technology container development project required the inclined impact facility in the west building on the DTB campus to simulate the potential impacts that occur during truck transportation.  The seismic vibration table was utilized to create the low frequency vibration environment, which the bulk shipper is exposed to during the transit process.  Additionally, low pressure altitude, temperature cycling, fork truck handling, and drop testing were incorporated throughout the process.

 

“Dayton T. Brown has been instrumental to Sartorius’ success in developing innovative solutions to the challenges faced by biopharma companies in transporting bulk drug substances.  From the start of our relationship, Louise Loyst has advocated to ensure that we receive the resources needed to prototype and qualify our products against the most severe transport conditions.  Moreover, the flexibility and collaboration of John Long and his team, combined with our close proximity to the facility has allowed us to bring our next generation products to market in time to make a true impact on the world.  We at Sartorius are thankful to the DTB team for their commitment in helping us make the world a better place.”

–James Puglisi, Associate Engineer at Sartorius

 

Sartorius and DTB developed a partnership with a complete team collaboration effort.  Many DTB employees have played a role in the successful launching of these solutions that helped Sartorius take a concept and bring it from prototype to a functioning product.  Take pride in your contribution to the safe distribution of the COVID 19 vaccine that has been distributed throughout the country.  Thank you for all you do to make a difference!

 

In the summer of 2017, we began speaking with Sartorius Stedim Biotech, a global company leading innovations supporting bio pharmaceutical organizations to bring new drugs to market (through their cell cultivation, fermentation, filtration, purification, and fluid management).

 

As the live cell culture medications are packaged and distributed, Sartorius engineers are tasked with designing containment and delivery systems that will keep the medication safe.  The packaging must be robust enough to keep the medication intact as it is transported.  One container of live culture medicine has significant dollar value; each bulk shipper, consisting of several of these containers, worth millions of dollars.  Sartorius’ goal is to design packaging allowing the safe transportation of this medicine.

 

DTB worked closely with Sartorius engineers brainstorming various testing solutions for their single use sterile, pre-assembled container systems for storage and transportation of bulk drug substances.  We designed and fabricated a chamber for extreme low temperature (-80°C) storage and conditioning.  The chamber design incorporated a plenum to help distribute uniform air flow over the faces of the container.  Sartorius maintained the viscosity of the solution used in testing to ensure the closest simulation without using the expensive live culture medication.

 

For the Celsius® FFT | FFTp with Safecore™ Technology container development project, we reinstalled the inclined impact facility in the west building to emulate potential impacts that may occur during truck transportation.  The seismic vibration table was used to create the vibration environment consisting of low frequency vibration background levels, which the bulk shipper is exposed to during the transit process.  Many more tests including altitude (low pressure), temperature cycling, fork truck handling, and drop testing were incorporated throughout the process.

 

Sartorius and DTB developed a partnership with a complete team collaboration effort.  As COVID 19 developed into a world pandemic, hundreds of thousands of people have been impacted and the pharmaceutical organizations concentrated efforts to develop a vaccine.  As that vaccine became available, the transportation of the vaccine became eminent.

 

The latest Sartorius products launched are the 12L Celsius® FFT with Safecore™ Technology and 12L Celsius® FFTp with Safecore™ Technology, now on the market to help the pharmaceutical companies with safe, effective distribution of the COVID 19 vaccine.

 

“Dayton T. Brown has been instrumental to Sartorius’ success in developing innovative solutions to the challenges faced by biopharma companies in transporting bulk drug substance.  From the start of our relationship, Louise Loyst has advocated to ensure that we receive the resources needed to prototype and qualify our products against the most severe transport conditions.  Moreover, the flexibility and collaboration of John Long and his team combined with our close proximity to the facility has allowed us to bring our next generation products to market in time to make a true impact on the world.  We at Sartorius are thankful to the DTB team for their commitment in helping us make the world a better place.”

–James Puglisi, Associate Engineer at Sartorius

 

So many members at DTB have been a part of the success of launching these solutions helping Sartorius take a concept and bring it from prototype to a functioning product.  Oftentimes we go about our everyday tasks and aren’t appraised to the applications and solutions we are a part of.  Everyone at DTB has been a part of helping the country heal from this pandemic as the COVID 19 vaccine is now being distributed throughout the country. Thank you for all you do to make a difference!