Artyc, a World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer, is developing smart cold chain packaging to reduce the amount of product loss in the pharmaceutical, food and industrial chemical sectors.
Its first product line targets hospitals, clinical trials and medical laboratories that ship temperature-sensitive specimens and medications. It offers two compact, mobile units – one the size of a toaster and the other similar in shape to a microwave oven – that replace dry ice and disposable packaging with reusable cooling technology that can be fine-tuned to the appropriate temperature. Thanks to built-in sensors its reusable cooling containers offer live tracking and a full chain-of-custody audit trail.
“Our goal is to get anything anywhere and set the standard for cold chain packaging around the globe so that more people have access and more products can be safely delivered,” says Hannah Sieber, co-founder and CEO of Fremont, California-based Artyc.
For decades, transporting temperature-sensitive medical materials has depended on an inefficient system based around Styrofoam boxes, dry ice (a hazardous material that is hard to handle), a random variety of temperature monitors. and paper trails. As a result, every year billions of dollars in pharmaceutical products are lost because of cold chain failures.
“Organizations are losing, on average, one out of 20 things they send, be it a life-saving human organ for a transplant, a critical infusion for a cancer patient or a disease-preventing vaccine,” says Sieber.
As biologics, cell and gene therapies, and other temperature-sensitive products become more common, the need for greater control and visibility in pharmaceutical logistics has become greater.
Artyc’s Medstow product line offers programmable temperature settings, with stabilization to ±3°C; onboard sensors that track GPS, ambient temperature, lid openings, and shock events; live monitoring through Artyc’s portal, showing temperature history, location, battery usage, and chain-of-custody logs; battery-powered compressor cooling that dynamically adjusts to ambient conditions, ensuring thermal integrity even in variable environments; and reusable design, dramatically reducing waste and simplifying procurement and reimbursement, Sieber says.
The startup’s all-in-one solution does not require complex pre-conditioning. “Using the same reusable container, you can choose the temperature you want, and in less than an hour it is ready to go,” she says. Artyc’s containers can be shipped through the mail, FedEx or UPS and shipped back to a lab or hospital at the press of a button, Sieber says.
Artyc’s rechargable, air shippable containers are powered by a thermoelectric cooler. “Think of it as a miniature heat pump that can both heat and cool at precise temperatures,” she says. “There is no fan and no moving parts so very little that is likely to break.” The containers and related software are leased annually.
Sieber says modernizing the cold chain creates new possibilities in healthcare delivery:
- In the operating room, where hospitals often wait until the last possible second to open a cooler—triggering insurance liability if a surgery is canceled—Artyc’s technology lets staff verify the temperature without opening the container
- In home-based care, Artyc’s technology unlocks new service models like mobile blood collection, in-home vaccinations, and decentralized clinical trials.
- In rural, pediatric, and geriatric settings, where patients may be unable or unwilling to travel, Artyc’s containers provides a trackable link between centralized labs and decentralized care.
Artyc’s customers include the University of Washington, California hospitals and Tasso, a healthcare technology company specializing in mobile blood collection.
The California startup has so far raised a total of $12.5 million in financing. It has plans to expand geographically and into other verticals such as food and industrial chemicals, she says.
Sieber previously founded a company called EcoFlow which replaced generators with batteries. She became interested in innovating the cold chain after a family member confronted difficulties receiving home medications while participating in a clinical trial. Applying her expertise in batteries to cold chain logistics, Sieber came up with the idea of creating Artyc.
Peli BioThermal, which specializes in both single use and reusable temperature-controlled packaging solutions for the life sciences industry, is a competitor as is Ember Life Sciences, which specializes in temperature control products. It recently raised a series A round of venture capital and is branching out into thermoelectric refrigeration technology that aims to disrupt the healthcare cold chain with a Cloud-based shipping box.
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