Cold Chain Logistics: Building Resilient Healthcare Systems

7 January 2026.

Cold Chain Logistics as Strategic Infrastructure

The rapid expansion of biologics, vaccines, and advanced therapies has reshaped the role of healthcare cold chain logistics. Products such as monoclonal antibodies, cell and gene therapies (CGTs), vaccines, and temperature-sensitive clinical trial materials require tightly controlled storage, transport, and monitoring from manufacture through to patient delivery.

As healthcare systems become more dependent on these therapies, cold chain logistics has evolved from an operational support function into a strategic enabler of clinical outcomes, regulatory compliance, and commercial scale. Demand has accelerated alongside biopharmaceutical pipeline growth, global immunisation programmes, and increasingly complex, geographically distributed clinical trials.

Operational Reality: Temperature, Compliance, Capital

Cold chain execution for biologics and advanced therapies is defined by several structural requirements:

Temperature control: Most biologics require 2 to 8 degrees Celsius, while CGTs and certain vaccines require ultra-low conditions below minus 80 degrees Celsius
Specialised infrastructure: Commercial products such as Humira and Keytruda depend on uninterrupted cold chain integrity, while CAR T therapies, including Kymriah and Yescarta, require cryogenic logistics
Regulatory validation: FDA, EMA, and WHO requirements mandate validated packaging, monitoring, and documentation across global supply chains
Capital intensity: High upfront investment and uneven regional infrastructure increase reliance on scale, partnerships, and execution capability

Logistics providers, including DHL Supply Chain, UPS Healthcare, FedEx Express, Kuehne+Nagel, and specialist providers such as Cryoport, are expanding dedicated networks, ultra-low temperature capacity, and real-time monitoring to meet these demands.

According to Visiongain analysis, global revenue in the healthcare cold chain logistics market is expected to exceed US$25 billion in 2025 and grow at a CAGR of 11.1% between 2025 and 2035, reflecting the sector’s transition from supporting infrastructure to a core pillar of modern healthcare delivery.

Visiongain Insight: Cold chain logistics is now a core execution variable shaping launch timelines, geographic expansion, and operational resilience. As therapeutic innovation accelerates, advantage will accrue to organisations able to manage capital-intensive, highly regulated, and globally distributed supply chains, converting logistics capability into a durable source of competitive differentiation.

Tech-Enabled Cold Chains: Safeguarding Biologics and Advanced Therapies Worldwide

Technological innovation is reshaping healthcare cold chain logistics, shifting the sector from reactive temperature control to proactive, data-driven execution. As biologics, vaccines, and CGTs scale globally, providers are increasingly relying on digital infrastructure to improve reliability, compliance, and visibility across complex supply chains.

IoT-enabled sensors, RFID tracking, and cloud-based monitoring platforms now enable continuous oversight of temperature, humidity, and location during transit. This real-time visibility reduces excursion risk, shortens response times, and strengthens compliance with tightening regulatory requirements.

Leading logistics providers are embedding digital capability across their networks:

UPS Healthcare and DHL Supply Chain are investing in smart packaging, digital control towers, and predictive analytics
FedEx Express deploys SenseAware for real-time shipment visibility and exception management
Cryoport specialises in cryogenic logistics and data-driven chain-of-custody for CGTs

Sustainability is also becoming material, with the adoption of eco-friendly refrigerants, reusable thermal packaging, and energy-efficient cold storage. Together, these technologies are redefining cold chain logistics as an integrated digital system, supporting scale, resilience, and regulatory confidence as advanced therapies move into commercial deployment.

Visiongain Insight: In healthcare cold chain logistics, digital capability is becoming a proxy for execution risk. Real-time data, predictive monitoring, and validated chain-of-custody are increasingly used by regulators and manufacturers to assess reliability at scale, influencing partner selection as much as physical infrastructure or geographic reach.

How Governments and Private Players Are Securing Cold Chain Innovation

Public and private investment is strengthening healthcare cold chain infrastructure, as governments and logistics providers respond to the volume and variability of biologics, vaccines, and CGTs. Investment priorities are increasingly centred on resilience, compliance, and long-term capacity rather than short-term surge response.

On the public side, national immunisation strategies and pandemic preparedness programmes have accelerated funding for temperature-controlled infrastructure. Initiatives such as India’s Universal Immunisation Programme and the United States’ Operation Warp Speed supported the deployment of refrigerated vehicles, walk-in cold rooms, and ultra-low temperature freezers, expanding cold chain capacity across developed and emerging markets. Much of this infrastructure is now being repurposed for routine vaccination and biopharmaceutical distribution.

Private investment has moved in parallel, with logistics providers scaling specialised assets to support commercial biologics and CGTs. UPS Healthcare has expanded large-scale freezer farms and dedicated healthcare facilities, while DHL Supply Chain has invested in pharmaceutical hubs in Singapore and Germany. FedEx Express continues to strengthen its network through digital monitoring, while Cryoport is scaling cryogenic storage and transport for CGTs.

Taken together, these investments reflect a structural shift. Cold chain infrastructure is no longer built primarily for emergency response but treated as long-term strategic capacity, underpinning the commercial viability of temperature-sensitive therapies and system resilience.

Visiongain Insight: Public investment has expanded baseline cold chain capacity, but it is private capital and operational discipline that will determine how that capacity is monetised. As infrastructure decisions create long-lived assets, early investment choices are locking in network advantages that will shape market structure and competitive outcomes over the next decade.

How Strategic Collaborations Are Driving Market Expansion

Strategic collaborations have become a core growth lever in the healthcare cold chain logistics market, with logistics providers and biopharma companies aligning to manage complexity, accelerate scale, and reduce execution risk. As biologics, vaccines, and advanced therapies move into commercial deployment, partnership-led models are increasingly replacing standalone infrastructure build-out.

For logistics providers, collaboration anchors long-term demand and underpins investment in ultra-low temperature capacity, digital monitoring, and specialist facilities, while biopharma companies gain access to validated global networks that meet regulatory and commercial requirements.

Several collaboration patterns are shaping market expansion:

Vaccine and large-scale biologics distribution: DHL Supply Chain partnered with Moderna and supported BioNTech and Pfizer to enable global COVID-19 vaccine distribution through temperature-controlled networks and validated monitoring systems.
Advanced therapy enablement: UPS Healthcare has expanded freezer farms and dedicated facilities to support CAR T therapies such as Kymriah and Yescarta, while Cryoport collaborates with Novartis, Gilead, and Kite Pharma to deliver cryogenic logistics for CGTs.
Digital visibility and compliance: FedEx Express supports biopharma clients through SenseAware-enabled real-time monitoring, while Kuehne + Nagel has expanded GDP-compliant services via its KN PharmaChain platform.
Plasma-derived and specialty products: UPS Healthcare and CSL Behring are collaborating to expand cold chain capabilities for plasma-derived therapies.

Collectively, these collaborations signal a shift from transactional logistics contracts to integrated supply chain partnerships. As therapy portfolios diversify and regulatory expectations tighten, embedding logistics providers earlier in development and commercial planning is becoming a determinant of speed, scale, and reliability.

Visiongain Insight: Strategic collaborations in healthcare cold chain logistics are evolving into ecosystem relationships rather than service agreements. By locking in preferred partners early, biopharma companies and logistics providers are creating durable network effects that raise switching costs and influence long-term market structure as advanced therapies scale.

Market Drivers Reshaping the Healthcare Cold Chain Logistics Industry

Several structural forces are converging to accelerate growth and reshape competitive dynamics in the healthcare cold chain logistics market. Unlike earlier, event-driven cycles, today’s drivers reinforce one another, creating sustained long-term momentum.

Expansion of biopharmaceuticals and advanced therapies: Biologics, monoclonal antibodies, and CGTs are temperature-sensitive, often requiring controlled conditions from 2 to 8 degrees Celsius or ultra-low environments below minus 80 degrees Celsius. As these therapies scale commercially, cold chain logistics are becoming a prerequisite for market access rather than a supporting function.
Vaccine production and immunisation programmes: While COVID-19 accelerated global cold chain investment, ongoing immunisation programmes for influenza, HPV, polio, and other preventable diseases continue to sustain demand. Governments are expanding capacity to support routine vaccination, pandemic preparedness, and regional manufacturing, particularly in emerging markets.
Globalisation of clinical trials: Pharmaceutical and biotech companies are conducting trials across increasingly diverse geographies. Cold chain logistics is essential for transporting investigational drugs, biological samples, and companion diagnostics, making logistics capability a critical enabler of trial execution and speed.
Technological advancement and digitalisation: IoT-enabled sensors, real-time monitoring, predictive analytics, and smart packaging are improving reliability, reducing spoilage, and strengthening regulatory compliance. Digital capability is increasingly embedded into logistics offerings, raising expectations around visibility and control.
Regulatory compliance and quality assurance: Requirements from regulators such as the FDA, EMA, and WHO mandate validated temperature-controlled handling across storage and transport. Compliance obligations, audits, and GDP certification continue to drive investment in advanced cold chain systems.
Emerging market scale-up: Markets such as India and China are expanding vaccine manufacturing, pharmaceutical production, and healthcare access. Scaling cold chain infrastructure in these regions is both a growth opportunity and a structural necessity, contributing materially to global volume growth.

Visiongain Insight: Healthcare cold chain logistics demand is becoming structurally durable, driven by biologics growth, routine immunisation, globalised clinical trials, and tighter regulation. Providers that align infrastructure investment with these forces are best placed to sustain growth and defend margins.

Market Outlook: From Infrastructure Build-Out to Competitive Differentiation

The healthcare cold chain logistics market is entering a phase defined less by capacity expansion and more by execution quality and differentiation. Following several years of accelerated infrastructure build-out driven by vaccines, biologics, and CGTs, competitive outcomes will increasingly depend on how effectively providers convert assets into reliable, scalable, and commercially viable networks.

As biologics and CGTs move into broader commercial deployment, cold chain performance is becoming directly linked to product success. Decisions on ultra-low temperature capacity, digital control systems, and geographic footprint will shape cost structures, partnership eligibility, and long-term positioning.

Uneven infrastructure maturity across regions and rising regulatory scrutiny are reshaping operating models. Providers and biopharma companies are reassessing whether in-house expansion, long-term partnerships, or selective acquisitions offer the best balance between capital intensity, risk, and speed to scale.

Key strategic considerations for the next phase include:

Scaling advanced therapy logistics without locking in excess or underutilised capacity
Securing partnerships that anchor long-term demand from biologics and cell and gene therapy pipelines
Balancing investment between ultra-low temperature infrastructure, digital visibility, and sustainability
Meeting rising expectations for real-world performance evidence from regulators and biopharma partners
Configuring global networks to reflect regional differences in regulation, reimbursement, and disease burden

As these dynamics converge, leadership is likely to concentrate among providers that align infrastructure, digital capability, regulatory compliance, and partnership strategy into an integrated execution model, rather than pursuing capacity in isolation.

Visiongain Insight: The next phase of the healthcare cold chain logistics market will reward execution discipline over asset accumulation. Providers that translate infrastructure investment into trusted, data-driven execution platforms aligned with biopharma development timelines and market access requirements are best positioned to lead as competition intensifies.

Our market forecasts, competitive analysis and sector reports provide the clarity needed to make decisive, future-proof strategic choices.