Godrej & Boyce unveils ultra-low temp freezers, mobile refrigerators for Covid vaccines

February 9, 2021: Godrej & Boyce today announced the launch of ultra-low temperature medical freezer to store Covid-19 vaccines with temperature requirement below -80 degree Celsius and a successful pilot of maintaining the temperature of Covid-19 vaccines between 2 and 8 degree Celsius for three days in mobile refrigerators without any power source during a journey through the hinterland of Maharashtra.

While vaccines of Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna require temperature below -80 degree Celsius, the two vaccines approved in India, Covishield and Covaxin, need the temperatures to be kept between 2 and 8 degree Celsius.

The mobile refrigerator concept was already applied by Godrej in Assam to transport vaccine on boats between remote islands while maintaining the required temperature for 7- 8 days without any power source. The company is hoping to apply the same concept in the last-mile of Covid-19 vaccine supply chain.  

Medical Freezers which maintain -20 degree Celsius are also being deployed for diluents and ice packs needed for the last mile delivery in the Covid vaccination drive.

The Godrej Group Company plans to increase its capacity to manufacture both the ultra-low temp freezers and mobile refrigerators with significant investment due to the expected demand. The current capacity for ultra-low temperature freezers is 12,000 units per annum, which Godrej Appliances is working towards quickly ramping up to 30,000 units per annum, to meet the growing global demand.

Kamal Nandi, business head & executive vice president, Godrej Appliances, said, “Using an ambulance our mobile medical refrigerator travelled through the hinterland of Maharashtra without any power source while monitoring the temperature in every 2 hours. We kept the temperature between 2 and 8 degree Celsius, ideal for both vaccines approved by India, throughout the journey for three days.”

“We have been in the business of providing refrigerators for moving vaccines and solving the pharma cold chain challenges since 2015. Two important challenges we solved during this period were the temperature instability in storage devices due to the low quality of power and the inability to maintain narrow band temperature and frozening of vaccines. With new technology to ensure precise temperature, we have developed our expertise in medical refrigerators over the last five-six years and have sold it to 36 countries in Africa, Latin America and Asia,” he added.  

Jamshyd Godrej chairman & managing director, Godrej & Boyce, said, “Urgency and scale of Covid-19 vaccines are unprecedented.  Union Budget has kept aside ₹35,000 crore for Covid-19 vaccination programme alone. With the need to vaccinate a large portion of the population and hopefully everybody, there is a growing need for precise cooling infrastructure and Godrej & Boyce can now help maintain 2-8 degree Celsius, -20 degree Celsius and -80 degree Celsius.”

Godrej Ultra Low Temperature Freezer