Pelican BioThermal to open Tokyo facility

Minnesota-based temperature-control packaging company Pelican BioThermal plans to open a new location in Tokyo on May 11. The facility will serve as a refurbishment and repair center for its reusable parcel shipping containers, as well as a “network station” for the company’s service Crēdo on Demand, which rents out their temperature-controlled pallets to customers.

The company cites a substantially high demand for pharmaceuticals in Japan – which it says is topped only by the demand in the United States and China – as its reasoning behind this decision, said Dominic Hyde, vice president of Crēdo on Demand. “With an aging population to consider,” he added,  “Japan has recently accelerated approvals of new drugs, a change that will influence many aspects of the life science cold chain in Asia, including the need for temperature-controlled packaging.”

The company recently opened a similar facility in San Diego and plans to open another 12 service stations this year, including Seoul, Basel, Dublin, Toronto, Frankfurt, Tel Aviv and Indianapolis, as well as another 50 drop-off points for containers at the end of their rental periods.