Are you making one of these mistakes with thermosensitive medications?

Whether you are a community pharmacist, a hospital pharmacist, a doctor, or a nurse, as a healthcare professional, you are likely to dispense or administer thermosensitive medications to patients. Many medicines such as insulin, vaccines, anti-cancer drugs are thermosensitive and require specific conditions for storage, handling and transport. Do you have the correct practice in place to ensure the integrity of the product delivered to the patient?

Correct practice for securing thermosensitive medications

Receiving packages and storage

I receive cold packages like other medication packages.

Packages containing thermosensitive products should not be treated like other packages. Upon delivery of the medicine, identify the insulated containers containing pharmaceuticals transported at controlled temperatures and prioritise their handling to place them as quickly as possible in a refrigerated environment (or frozen in the case of products transported frozen).

Thermosensitive medications are stored in a domestic refrigerator.

A pharmaceutical product must be stored at a specific temperature, ideally at a constant +5 °C, and at best between +2 °C and +8 °C, without experiencing temperature excursions. A domestic refrigerator does not have the reliability or thermal precision of a professional refrigerated unit. In the event of a partial interruption of its operation, there is no indicator to show that the product has been subjected to a temperature above +8 °C. Professional refrigerated units are accurate to within ±1 °C and have alarm systems that immediately indicate any malfunction.

Key practices to remember: Prioritise the handling of insulated packages containing thermosensitive pharmaceuticals and store them in a professional refrigerated unit.

Dispensing to the patient

I dispense the product in a simple bag to which I add frozen eutectic plates.

Contrary to popular belief, thermosensitive medications are sensitive to heat, but they are even more sensitive to cold. Placing a thermosensitive medication in direct contact with frozen eutectic plates risks freezing the medicine. A frozen medication is, at best, ineffective, and at worst, toxic. Medicine should never be in direct contact with eutectic plates. It should also not be dispensed in a non-insulated bag, even in the presence of eutectic plates.

I use an insulated solution without cold accumulators.

An insulated solution without a cold source does not keep the product cool. Only the addition of eutectic plates allows the medication to be maintained between +2 °C and +8 °C.

Key practice to remember: I dispense the medication in an appropriate insulated solution, instructing the patient to go directly home and refrigerate the product as quickly as possible. I always use an insulated packaging with cold accumulators and I never place the medication in direct contact with the eutectic plates.

There are various insulated solutions available on the market. Some do not keep medications at temperature for more than five minutes, while others can maintain medications at +5 °C for several hours.

A thermosensitive medicine exposed to an average temperature of +20 °C exceeds the +8 °C threshold in less than five minutes. Patients must use suitable and reliable insulated packaging. They should also be made aware of the importance of maintaining the cold chain for health products and trained in the use of temperature-controlled packaging.

Vincent Bailleul
Innovation Manager