YLE: Finnish Logmore Facing a Jackpot – this device saved Covid vaccines from spoiling

This blog post is based on the article originally written by Sanna Savela in Finnish and published by YLE, the national Broadcasting Company of Finland. The original article can be found here: https://yle.fi/uutiset/3-11744244

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Early in January 2021, Yle reported that a device monitoring the last mile of the covid vaccine cold chain alerted the staff of a temperature breach. In this particular case, the healthcare station in Northern Finland only had hours to act before the vaccines spoil. However, thanks to the alert, the vaccines were used in time.

Vaccine monitoring has drastically increased the demand for condition monitoring solutions. As Logmore CEO Janne Juhala told YLE in a recent interview, “We’ve received a huge amount of inquiries from all around the world. If things go as expected, we may ship hundreds of thousands of loggers.”

Logmore products are manufactured mainly by subcontractors in Finland and Latvia. With the rapid increase in demand, we decided to build a new manufacturing line in the city of Jyväskylä in Finland in mere weeks to answer the growing demand.

Logmore expects the Jyväskylä manufacturing line to be only an emergency solution for a situation where the company receives a significantly large order. The company already gets enough orders to warrant five employees working in the new location.

“I see the Länsi-Pohja healthcare district’s situation as concrete proof that the loggers are necessary,” says Juhala.

Currently, the devices track the journeys of thousands of vaccines in Finland, Argentina, Portugal, and New Zealand.

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Measuring below zero temperatures is possible

The majority of shipments tracked with Logmore are shipped above temperatures above zero degrees Celsius. Covid vaccines arrive in Finland encased in dry ice, but distributors defrost vaccines to refrigerator temperatures for domestic transportation.

“The vaccine remains viable for five days after defrosting,” says specialist Mia Kontio of the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare told YLE in a recent interview.

Minus 70 degrees below Celsius (-94°F) is well within the ranges Logmore sensors can handle. Our dry ice logger can be used in shipments using dry ice as a coolant.

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The circuit board and battery don’t last long in deep-freeze temperatures. Thanks to the external probe, they can stay outside the box.

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The primary use cases for the loggers have been pharmaceutical and food shipments. Thanks to the recent upsurge in eCommerce and home deliveries, a logger might travel to a consumer’s house attached to a package. “We’ve just surpassed the milestone of a hundred million measurements. Our devices have secured over ten thousand shipments to date”, says Janne Juhala.

Pharmaceutical manufacturers responsible for product quality during shipping

The pharmaceutical manufacturer is responsible for maintaining sub-zero temperatures on the way to Finland.
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Juhala tells YLE that the company is negotiating with central operators of the vaccine distribution chain, for instance, pharmaceutical and logistics companies and authorities. “Inquiries cover the entire distribution chain from manufacturing to the location of use.”

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Data collection equipment is required in pharmaceutical shipments

In Finland, all healthcare districts use loggers to monitor their shipments. Of the eleven districts, multiple have opted to use Logmore. As reported by Yle, the Länsi-Pohja district recently managed to save a batch of vaccines from spoiling thanks to QR loggers.

“The temperature of all medicine is monitored during transportation. It’s completely normal self-monitoring done by pharmacies. We actively use two models of loggers. One of them is this one read by a QR code,” hospital pharmacistRiikka Vänskä told Yle in a recent interview.

Yle also asked Mika Rämet of the Finnish Vaccine Research Center for his opinion. Without commenting on the demand for Logmore specifically, Rämet believes effective shipment monitoring would be welcome.

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This blog post is based on the article originally written by Sanna Savela in Finnish and published by YLE, the national Broadcasting Company of Finland. The original article can be found here: https://yle.fi/uutiset/3-11744244