How does temperature infiltrate the manufacturing of pharmaceuticals? Three BIG ways: Research, Creation, Distribution.
Research
Developing a new pharmaceutical drug is a daunting task. Forbes estimated in the summer of 2013 that the cost for a pharmaceutical company to create a new drug from scratch was around 5 billion dollars. A lot of that cost is built into the research of those pharmaceuticals. Instead of screwing up 5 billion, monitor the temperatures of your tests, whether they are taking place in a clean room, incubator, or freezer.
Creation
After a drug has been approved by the FDA for distribution, it's time for the manufacturing process to begin. Producing little white pills may seem easy enough, just add the ingredients and let the machine cut the pills. However, a lot more goes into the manufacturing process, specifically with regard to manufacturing under a correct environment. On the manufacturing floor, nearly every process, from incoming shipments to finished goods, need to occur at a set range of temperatures.
Distribution
Serialization, cell technology, and RFID tags have allowed temperature monitoring to go mobile in pharmaceutical shipments. Whether drugs need to be stored at room temperature, or in a commercial grade freezer, the cold chain should not be broken from a lack of temperature monitoring.
