LogiPharma USA 2026: Where Cold Chain Expertise Gaps Become Product Risk

Anthony "TJ" Rizzo, chief commercial officer at Cold Chain Technologies, says the hardest skill to find in pharmaceutical cold chain isn't a single discipline but the ability to see the whole chain at once. Speaking with Pharmaceutical Commerce at LogiPharma USA 2026, where he joined a fireside chat on building the next generation of cold chain leaders, Rizzo, former chair of the ISTA Pharma Committee, says one of the biggest challenges facing the industry "is people truly understanding the full end-to-end supply chain."

That view spans packaging, distribution, handoffs across logistics channels and the technology and data monitoring tools now on the market, he explains, with the goal of tying those pieces together into the right distribution solution for a given product.

The pipeline is raising the stakes. "The complexity is a significant driver here with all the new therapies being out there, whether it be cell and gene therapy based or even some of the more advanced biologics that are being developed," Rizzo says.

When that end-to-end view is missing, he notes, risk tends to surface as unintended consequences, such as packaging that isn't matched to how it will be used in the chain, or uncertainty about what a logistics provider can do if a shipment is delayed in transit. "Not really truly understanding the capabilities of the packaging and the logistics providers you have, and having visibility to the data can lead to unintended risks associated with temperature excursions or even potentially product loss," he says.

Industry research points to the same gap. A 2024 HDA Research Foundation report found that temperature-sensitive products outpaced non-cold chain therapies by 21% between 2018 and 2024.¹ It warned that this growth would strain available skilled labor and flagged staff shortages and training requirements as areas of concern. Among its six recommendations was standing up a sector-wide cold chain workforce certification program.

Temperature excursions already cost the industry an estimated $35 billion a year.

Reference

1. The Future of the U.S. Pharmaceutical Cold Chain. HDA Research Foundation and Envision Pharma Group. March 7, 2024. https://www.hda.org/publications/the-future-of-u-s-pharmaceutical-cold-chain-distribution/