How we keep insulin cold from our fridge to your door

Insulin and a few other medicines, including some vaccines and eye drops, need to stay between 2°C and 8°C until they are opened. A few hours in a hot Kolkata afternoon can affect them, so they travel differently from everything else we deliver.

In the shop, cold-chain items are kept in a dedicated pharmacy fridge, not a household one. It has a digital display and an alarm that sounds if the temperature goes outside the 2°C to 8°C range. One of our pharmacists records the reading twice a day, morning and evening, in a logbook kept beside it. The fridge is on a separate power backup, so it keeps running during load-shedding.

When an order includes insulin, it is packed last, just before the rider leaves. The pens or vials go into an insulated box with two frozen gel packs, wrapped in a layer of bubble wrap so that the insulin never touches the ice directly; frozen insulin should not be used. The box is labelled “keep cold” and the rider is told to deliver it first on their route.

When it arrives, unpack it at once and put unopened insulin in the main part of your fridge, not the door and never the freezer. The pen you are currently using can usually stay at room temperature for the period printed on its leaflet; ask your pharmacist if you are unsure. If the box arrives warm or the gel packs have fully melted, call us before using the insulin, and we will check and replace it if needed.