Risk assessment of pneumatic tube systems for in-hospital transportation of biotherapeutics

IntroductionUse of Pneumatic tube systems (PTS's) poses a risk to inherently unstable protein therapeutics. Mechanical stress caused by those systems can lead to aggregation, compromising product safety and quality. However, PTS's are widely used in hospitals, and contradictory effects on protein stability have been reported.MethodsWe studied whether mechanical stress levels differ between hospitals and routes, potentially leading to different findings regarding protein aggregation. By transporting a mechanical sensor on nine different PTS routes in seven different hospitals, we quantified the accelerations that protein therapeutics experience in a specific PTS setup.ResultsIt was found that the maximum acceleration within the different PTS setups was similar. However, transportation times differed up to 4-fold, leading to varying amounts of cumulative stress.ConclusionThe cumulative and maximum stress quantified can be compared to stress found in studies investigating protein stability, which justifies the usage of mechanical sensors for risk evaluation. The differences in stress found underscore the importance of evaluating handling practices individually in each hospital, for each therapeutic protein.