Building resilience into a critical pharmaceutical cold chain

For pharmaceutical companies, reliable temperature-controlled storage is critical. A failure in the cold chain can put temperature-sensitive products at risk and potentially disrupt the supply of essential therapies.

A major British biopharmaceutical company operating across 11 UK sites needed to strengthen the resilience of its cold-chain infrastructure at one of its facilities. The objective was not to increase routine storage capacity, but to have reliable backup storage available on site at all times should its primary cold storage fail.

The challenge

The customer stores a range of temperature-critical therapies, from traditional medicines to advanced autoimmune treatments. Maintaining the required temperature conditions is essential to protect product quality and avoid potential degradation and product loss.

The key concern was the risk of failure of the site’s existing primary cold storage units.

The customer therefore needed a backup solution that could:

• Be available continuously when required
• Maintain controlled temperatures reliably
• Be located directly alongside the existing storage facility
• Meet the requirements of a highly controlled pharmaceutical environment
• Be deployed without waiting for permanent construction

For the customer, the priority was resilience: having additional cold storage ready to support the operation immediately if the primary system became unavailable.

The solution

Following discussions around the available options, the customer selected two 40ft ArcticStore Tropical units, installed on the secure site adjacent to the existing storage facility.

The units were installed as dedicated backup storage and, following a detailed acceptance and qualification process, now operate continuously at pre-set temperatures.

TITAN worked closely with the customer’s facilities and site security teams throughout the project, providing detailed unit specifications, site-specific RAMS and delivery updates.

The units were in place within 18 days of the initial enquiry and began operating in December 2025.

The result

The ArcticStores now provide the customer with immediately available backup cold storage, strengthening the resilience of its existing cold-chain infrastructure.

The solution provides:

• Always-on backup storage directly on site
• Reliable temperature-controlled conditions for critical therapies
• Rapid access to additional capacity if primary storage becomes unavailable
• No requirement for permanent construction of additional storage
• 24/7 remote monitoring through TITAN’s SmartArctic technology

The contract has since been extended, with the units continuing to operate as part of the customer’s ongoing cold-chain strategy.

Strengthening pharmaceutical supply chain resilience

For pharmaceutical operations, cold-chain continuity is about more than storage capacity. It is about ensuring that critical products remain protected when unexpected events occur.

This project demonstrates how dedicated, temperature-controlled backup infrastructure can help pharmaceutical companies build greater resilience into their cold-chain operations, with flexible capacity available when it matters most.