Bengaluru start-up aims to solve cold chain logistics for healthcare Premium

In a mostly tropical country like India where regions experience high temperatures during the daytime, the lack of reliable last-mile cold chain has been a major challenge in healthcare. An effective mechanism to transport temperature-sensitive to remote rural settlements, or diagnostic samples from villages to the nearest urban centres is a crucial requirement not only in India, but across the world in developing countries. 

In a mostly tropical country like India where regions experience high temperatures during the daytime, the lack of reliable last-mile cold chain has been a major challenge in healthcare. An effective mechanism to transport temperature-sensitive to remote rural settlements, or diagnostic samples from villages to the nearest urban centres is a crucial requirement not only in India, but across the world in developing countries. 

Bengaluru-based start-up Enhance Innovations may have a solution for this. The company has developed Phloton, a portable battery-powered cooling device that can carry medical supplies to hinterlands with limited electricity access. 

“For a country like India where diabetes is so common, there are places you can’t safely store or carry insulin to because there’s not enough refrigeration available,” says Ankita Mittal, CEO at Enhance Innovations, underlining the gravity of the situation. 

According to WHO estimates, 50% of vaccines are wasted globally every year. A major reason is lack of temperature control and ineffective cold chain logistics. 

“Till the point of public health centres (PHC) it’s fine. We have big refrigerators or freezers to keep these vaccines safe. But from the PHC to the point of administration, especially in rural settings, it becomes a challenge,” points out Mittal. 

“Everybody in an entire block cannot come to the PHC. ASHA workers carry medications and vaccines to administer to people, but how do we make sure they can carry it safe?” 

In most places, the existing mechanism is to carry the vaccines in iceboxes. However, within the first hour of being taken out of the refrigerator, these boxes lose 50% of their cooling. In India, places that are several hours away from the nearest PHC are not rare. This means that by the time the vaccine reaches such places and is administered to people, there is a possibility of iceboxes becoming warmer rendering the vaccines ineffective.