CCT launches reusable dry ice shipper

Cold Chain Technologies (CCT) has expanded its EcoFlex reusable packaging range with a dry ice shipper designed for clinical trials, cell and gene therapies, and other high-value pharmaceutical products moving at ultra low temperatures.

The EcoFlex Dry Ice shipper uses CCT’s patented Air Shield system to regulate airflow around the refrigerant. The design is intended to reduce the risk of supercooling, where excessive airflow can accelerate dry ice sublimation and drive temperatures below the range intended for the product.

The new configuration is available in small, medium, large, and extra large payload sizes. Its payload box is held at an angle within an internal scaffold, with dry ice packed around the sides and in a separate top tray. CCT says the arrangement simplifies pack out and gives operators easier access when dry ice needs to be replenished during a journey.

That access is important because dry ice shipments can remain in transit for several days and may encounter customs delays, missed connections, route changes, or other interruptions. Where refrigerant needs to be replenished, the packaging has to allow intervention without exposing the payload unnecessarily or creating a complicated repacking exercise away from the original shipping site.

The dedicated top tray allows operators to add refrigerant without removing the payload box, while the Air Shield system manages airflow around the chamber. The combination is intended to improve both thermal protection and the practical handling of the shipper during an intervention.

Monitoring has also been designed into the package. EcoFlex Dry Ice provides space for up to two data loggers, with probes routed directly into the payload chamber so product temperatures can be recorded rather than inferred solely from conditions elsewhere inside the container.

The shipper can operate alongside CCT’s MedAssure digital analytics platform and its CCT C.A.R.E. real time monitoring and intervention service. That extends the proposition beyond the thermal container itself, connecting packaging with data and the operational response needed when a shipment moves outside its expected route or condition profile.

David Webber, Senior Global Marketing Manager at Cold Chain Technologies, said: “Dry ice shipments often contain some of the pharmaceutical industry’s highest-value and most temperature-sensitive products, making shipment protection and visibility absolutely critical.”

The stakes are unusually high in this part of the cold chain. Clinical trial material and advanced therapies can combine small payloads with substantial product value, strict handling requirements, and limited replacement options. A failed movement can therefore create consequences far beyond the freight charge, including treatment disruption, trial delays, product loss, and investigation costs.

Dry ice itself adds another operating variable. Sublimation rates change with insulation performance, ambient conditions, package configuration, handling, and airflow. Adding more dry ice can extend duration, but it does not automatically create better temperature control if the refrigerant arrangement exposes the payload to excessively cold conditions.

CCT has used related supercooling mitigation in other ultra low temperature packaging, including designs intended to restrict unwanted air movement while maintaining sub-zero performance over extended journeys. Extending that approach into EcoFlex gives the reusable parcel family a dry ice configuration built around the specific handling and thermal behaviour of the refrigerant.

The reusable element changes the logistics model as well. A single-use thermal shipper leaves the customer mainly concerned with the outbound movement and disposal, whereas a reusable asset has to be recovered, inspected, refurbished where necessary, and returned to service. Asset control and reverse logistics therefore become part of the economics.

EcoFlex Dry Ice is compatible with CCT’s ReNew refurbishment and renew programme, through which reusable equipment can be inspected and components addressed before redeployment. The shipper also carries artwork identifying its reusable status, intended to reduce the likelihood that the asset is discarded after delivery.

A removable placard system tackles another return issue. Dry ice hazard labels can be removed once the shipment has been received and the refrigerant has fully sublimated, reducing the risk of empty packaging being treated as hazardous goods on the return leg simply because labels remain attached.

That detail is operational rather than cosmetic. Reusable packaging only produces value if it moves back through the network efficiently enough to be deployed again, and unnecessary dangerous goods handling can add cost and delay to a return movement that no longer contains regulated refrigerant.

Cold Chain Technologies has previously described visibility, predictive tools, and reusable systems as increasingly connected parts of pharmaceutical logistics. EcoFlex Dry Ice follows that direction by combining the physical shipper with defined monitoring positions, analytics, intervention support, and an established refurbishment process.

The commercial test will be whether those elements work economically over repeated cycles. Reusable dry ice systems have to withstand handling, replenishment, return transport, cleaning, inspection, and refurbishment while continuing to meet thermal requirements. Fleet economics also depend on recovery rates and the distance between customers, service centres, and the next deployment point.

EcoFlex Dry Ice is available now in all four sizes. Its success will depend less on the novelty of a reusable box than on whether airflow control, monitoring, intervention access, and return handling can reduce risk across the whole movement rather than simply during the hours when the payload is sealed inside it.