Teva and Controlant discuss the value of real-time control tower intervention

Real-time control tower for automation and protection

Pharma companies are making the change to real-time control towers to access important quality data earlier in the shipment process and automate compliance efforts.

The benefits of real-time technology extend beyond a proactive response to individual shipment data. As Ada explains in the presentation, a real-time control tower can offer added protection by providing a chance to get ahead of problems, to stop something from becoming a major problem and mitigating the risk to the pharmaceutical company.

Monitoring and response for valuable pharma products

Controlant’s Monitoring and Response Service team (MARS) offers this type of protection, providing 24/7 services to monitor shipments and intervene on the customer’s behalf, safeguarding products during transit. The team addresses 12,000 interventions per month with an average response time of less than 20 minutes.

“These are highly experienced professionals with deep pharma and cold-chain expertise,” says Ada. “They know what to look for and they are highly skilled at managing the intricacy and nuance of establishing effective processes like theirs with new partners and other third parties in a highly regulated environment.”

Controlant’s MARS agents play a crucial role in safeguarding valuable pharma products, contributing to a successful delivery rate of more than 99%. But there is a percentage of valuable pharma products that need to be stored between 2-8°C that require, for example, special attention to handover points, shipment milestones, and scheduled checks for arrival destinations.

That’s where enhanced monitoring services kick in.

What is enhanced monitoring?

For these pharma products that are stored and shipped between 2-8°C, if a temperature deviation alert comes in, representatives will respond within minutes to escalate the alert based on a clearly defined set of procedures that are carefully worked out and documented between Controlant, the pharma company, and their logistics service providers.

The demand for this type of service stems from increased operational challenges and external factors including port congestion, extreme weather, geopolitical conflicts, and pandemics.

Controlant’s solution for highly sensitive pharma products:

• Monitors shipment milestones
• Pays special attention to handover points
• Takes measures to increase connectivity in known difficult areas, such as ports with poor Internet connection
• Advises on logger placement, e.g. to put loggers outside the thermal blankets for better connectivity
• Tracks from warehouse to port and schedules the next check for when it arrives at a port

Teva Pharmaceuticals is one of the companies currently piloting Controlant’s enhanced monitoring service.

Real-time data is essential

Real-time control tower intervention confirms that the shipment is intact, the shipment has been checked for physical damage and tampering, the container is powered, and the temperature setpoint is correct.

“That real-time data is essential; it changed the game,” says Val. “But that’s only one piece of the puzzle. We needed some kind of real-time control tower that fully governs and takes care of the shipments. For Teva, we have 99.4% ‘first time right’ on our shipments. As we are increasingly moving more 2-8°C products that are more expensive, critical, and lifesaving, we wanted to cover the last half percentage and improve it. In fact, 50% of all excursions happen in the 2-8°C category. This is the missing piece.”

“So, we sat down with the Controlant team to figure out the best solution,” says Val. “What came out of that, which is now live today, producing outstanding results, is a highly effective pilot project.”

Video: Val from Teva and Ada from Controlant discuss real-time control towers

The new standard in control tower intervention

What had to change to monitor sensitive shipments:

• There had to be clearly defined accountability between Teva, Controlant, and LSPs reflected in commercial agreements empowering Controlant to liaise directly with Teva and LSPs to request actions when an issue needs to be escalated.
• SLAs from LSPs would be required, to ensure action is taken by third party carriers, handling agents, etc.
• The scope would be expanded to include monitoring additional factors.

“Data creates capabilities, but it’s people who leverage those capabilities into effective processes that deliver results,” says Val. “Operating models are not sacred cows. They should be re-examined based on new capabilities.”

Adopting a real-time control tower to access important quality data earlier in the shipment process and automate compliance efforts is helping to fill gaps and deliver results.

To find out more about real-time control tower intervention, get in touch today.