Stirling Ultracold—producer of the best-in-class, ultra-low temperature freezer—is playing a critical role in the effort to vaccinate up to 7.8 billion people worldwide.

With the recent announcements from Pfizer and Moderna of vaccines with 90-95% efficacy rates, many are celebrating a major win in the fight against the coronavirus.  While this represents a monumental feat in this moment, it is not void challenges: namely, a cold chain delivery and storage network for effective vaccine administration. This is where Stirling Ultracold steps in.

Stirling Ultracold is currently the only manufacturer of ultra-low temperature cold chain storage products that can thermally protect vaccines needing to be stored between -20 and -80 degrees Celsius for stability. As the buildout of global capacity intensifies, demand for these products is skyrocketing—the company has grown its business about 150% from the first quarter to the current quarter.

While other ultra-low temperature freezers only allow for pre-set standards for specific use cases, the Stirling Ultracold freezer provides adjustable settings, increasing its usability for a wide range of potential vaccines.

Further, Stirling Ultracold’s products scale from drug manufacturer to freezer farm to patient, providing complete cold-chain custody for COVID-19 vaccines. Its large upright units are deployed in centralized health network hubs, or freezer farms, and smaller units—including a portable option that can be plugged in to any outlet across the globe—are viable resources for hospitals, pharmacies and labs in major cities and remote areas alike. Unlike dry ice, Stirling Ultracold freezers provide a more permanent solution for longer term storage, helping ensure vaccines remain effective next year and for years to come. In a recently announced collaboration with UPS Healthcare, Stirling Ultracold will distribute its ultra-low temperature portable freezers to be used in smaller point-of-care facilities that require more storage permanency than dry ice might provide.  

Much talk has been made about the “last mile delivery,” that last step in getting the vaccines to the clinics and pharmacies that will administer them, without losing their efficacy and viability.  With Stirling Ultracold’s ability to mobilize down to the last mile – it is critical in maintaining a successful cold chain distribution strategy.  

Creating a global footprint, sustaining community impact

While Stirling Ultracold is making waves across the country and the globe for its role in the cold chain delivery network, its local impact remains a bright spot.

Located in rural Athens, Ohio, where unemployment rose as high as 11.3% in April, Stirling Ultracold has continued to hire while other manufacturers were cutting staff or hours. Due to the explosive demand of its freezers, the company has expanded its employee base by 30%, representing a 150-person strong workforce in and around this rural, southeastern part of the state that has been working tirelessly to meet this moment.

Stirling Ultracold’s momentous leadership in the race to eradicate COVID-19 all started with technology created and manufactured in rural Ohio—and supported by programs such as the Ohio Rural Business Growth program and federal and state New Markets Tax Credits.  With the flexibility provided through these types of incentivized investment programs—designed to steer private capital to low income communities—Advantage Capital was able to identify and support a rural manufacturer located in one of rural Ohio’s most distressed counties.  

The company is a shining example of these programs at work: creating jobs, emboldening communities and, for Stirling Ultracold, moving fast enough to save lives the world over.

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