Pfizer Clinical Trial

Polar Thermal Packaging go back a long way: collaboration on Clinical Trials has been made a valuable contribution to the Research & Development Department at Polar.

Pfizer Global Research & Development contracted Polar Thermal as the lead in cold chain package development and manufacturing. The trial was expanded to cover UK, Netherlands and the US over a 65 week period – Polar had responsibility for cold chain packaging solutions supporting clinical supply and day to day distribution activities from drug product stage through delivery to clinical site or to a subject’s residence.

Made in Britain

Following a visit to a factory in Shenzhen, Polar Thermal Managing Director Paul Harrison has committed to maintaining manufacturing and production in the UK. Paul said: “I was very curious when I was shown example costings but the reality was dreadful working conditions coupled with very poor and variable quality.”

Polar have been investing in new systems in their Warminster factory and taken on additional staff, but are more committed than ever to maintain and improve standards, rather than cut corners:

Office Manager Jemma Griffiths is responsible for maintaining the company’s ISO9001 Certification and is also handling the ISO14001 Environmental Registration – “operating in an ethical way has been core to how we do business and it has become even more relevant given the pandemic. Personally, I am really proud of the way we run our business, treat our staff, customers and suppliers.”

Commercial Manager Alex Porter commented: “We can’t compete on price with the sweatshops in the Far East – we have made a choice to maintain quality and improve service – we trust in our resellers and customers that this is enough – if we start compromising on this then we are just in a race to the bottom.

It is disappointing that some of our products are being copied and imported – we have had customers call us with issues only to discover that they have unknowingly bought cheap lookalikes. Given that we manufacture bags to keep vaccines and pharmaceuticals safe we would never look to outsource our manufacturing.”

Paul added: “it is always a difficult conversation when someone calls us and says they can ‘get it cheaper from China’ – they are correct – they can, and they can get it from the UK, Made in China, but if they are going to trust the lives of their end-customers to this then it is not going to end well.”

Polar has now committed to sourcing 90% of its materials in the UK, 95% within Europe and to maintain all manufacturing in the UK.

Marking and Cutting 20 litre Vaccine Bags for the NHS

NHS Framework Agreement

Eugene Cooke, National Head of Procurement NHSBT, today signed a two year extension to the framework agreement NHSBT0485 with Polar Thermal Packaging’s Managing Director, Paul Harrison.

Paul said “we have always valued the NHS as a customer, but in recent months the importance of our relationship has really sunk in so we are absolutely delighted to be doing our bit. To see our Blood, Plasma and Vaccine Thermal Transport solutions being used daily by the NHS, the life science businesses and research universities is fantastic. The team in our Warminster factory has been working extra shifts, weekends and bank holidays to support the various vaccine research programmes and we are beginning to see some positive results.”

The framework agreement is signed by the NHS Blood and Transplant Service, but also covers all European Blood Alliance members making it possible for any of the 27 countries in Europe as well as the Australian National Blood Authority, Lifeblood Australia, Canadian Blood Services and the New Zealand Blood Service to avail of the special terms. All of the test data is also available to those member countries.

Polar delivers again in Covid 19 Convalescent Plasma Trial

Today another 100 Blood Plasma Systems were finished by the team in the Warminster factory. Extra shifts were put on over the Bank Holiday to keep ahead of schedule.

Whilst Oxford Univesity is leading the way the US Food & Drug Administration (FDA) has issued guidance for trials of the process.

Already accepted in China the use of antibody-rich plasma has reportedly been very beneficial for many patients.

In the UK, thousands of recovered Covid-19 patients have volunteered to give plasma for the trials, and the collection and transport using Polar Thermal Blood Plasma Systems is being scaled up.

It is important to understand that this is not being put forward as a vaccine or cure, but there is significant hope that it may reduce the symptoms and slow down the effect of the virus.