How freeze drying can help in times of increasing uncertainty

By Niloofar Ganji, Research Scientist at Biopharma Group

As geopolitical tensions heat up, international supply chains are under intense strain. This pressure has been felt across a wide range of areas in healthcare, such as clinical diagnostics. The UK diagnostics industry has grown from a market value of £8.4 billion in 2021 to £9.3 billion in 2025. However, emerging geopolitical challenges in 2026 could impede this growth if the right supply chain solutions are not identified and applied. While freeze drying solutions are foundational to other industries, such as pharmaceuticals, they are less established in diagnostics. With their proven efficiencies in other sectors, could freeze drying techniques help to secure logistics and maintain growth against a backdrop of increased global volatility?   

The global expansion of diagnostics

The COVID-19 pandemic was a stark reminder of the importance of swiftly and effectively diagnosing patients. Owing to this, diagnostics organisations continue to experience high demand for their products and services even after the pandemic, particularly for point of care (PoC) solutions. Recognising the global breadth of this trend, companies are frequently looking to expand their operations overseas. The aim of this is three-fold: to capitalise on growing markets, diversify operations, and, most importantly, improve patient care internationally. 

In doing so, diagnostics organisations now face a whole new set of logistical challenges. One of the most pressing of these is the transportation of products, which is highly susceptible to external influences and conflicts.  

Maintaining cost-effective transportation despite geopolitical impacts

Since February 2026, fuel costs have risen sharply in response to current events in the Strait of Hormuz, with UK fuel prices rising by 20%. For almost all organisations, this has made the efficient transportation of goods a top priority. Diagnostics companies often rely on specialised vehicles to transport their products in temperature-controlled environments. The effective operation of these vehicles is highly vulnerable to energy price shocks, as they require fuel for both transport and active temperature control. In a volatile marketplace, such energy-intensive modes of transit are becoming a major point of concern. 

In response to this, diagnostics companies are seeking ways to protect their operations from the external fuel and energy shocks that are associated with maintaining their cold chains. While not often considered in this context, freeze drying could play an important role in answering this challenge. Freeze drying, otherwise known as lyophilisation, is a low-temperature drying process that removes moisture from a product through sublimation, turning ice directly into water vapour without passing through a liquid phase. This preserves the original structure, chemical composition and potency of products, allowing them to be shipped in ambient temperatures across the world.

In diagnostics, the presence of freeze drying in supply chains is still intermittent, with some organisations building it into their logistics from the outset and others opting for a traditional cold chain. However, could the world’s increasing geopolitical instability present a tipping point in favour of lyophilisation? By taking temperature-controlled vehicles out of the equation, companies that adopt freeze drying are becoming more resilient to market fluctuations – particularly when compared to their cold chain-based competitors. 

Mitigating risk through freeze drying

Some organisations remain reluctant to make this pivot over concerns that it adds another step to their supply chains. While this is true, this challenge is outweighed by two key considerations. On the one hand, rising prices are creating a scenario in which the costs of implementing freeze drying are eclipsed by heightened cold chain expenses. On the other, making operational costs more predictable provides inherent value, as this enables organisations to more effectively plan their strategies. 

This conclusion is supported by Boston Consulting Group’s recent report: Balancing Cost and Resilience: The New Supply Chain Challenge, which contends that even if an intervention's costs were to perfectly equal the projected average expenditure of a future shock, neutralising that risk provides capital value because predictability is a competitive advantage. For diagnostics organisations, this means that the value gained in adopting freeze drying is not only driven by the cost disparity between lyophilisation processes and traditional cold chain operations, but also in the value of risk mitigation in and of itself. 

Securing products against flight disruption

Recent geopolitical events have also caused major disruption to the air transit of products internationally. This has significantly prolonged the delivery timescales of diagnostics companies, who are all waiting for a finite number of air freight slots to become available. Even more concerning is that many of these diagnostics products, such as some enzymes used in PCR/qPCR assays, will degrade during this waiting period. Standard liquid reagents are bound by the strict shelf lives of dry ice or gel packs, which are typically between 48–72 hours. If a flight is grounded or rerouted, the cold chain expires and the product spoils. This can incur considerable costs from product waste and re-delivery. 

Freeze-dried products completely remove this ticking clock. Once lyophilised, these products can sit safely in a warehouse or on tarmac for weeks without degradation. Even if other international transport methods are identified, such as sea, rail, or road freight, liquid diagnostics cannot survive their weekslong transit times. Because freeze-dried products are typically ambient-stable, they give diagnostics companies the flexibility to switch to alternative transport modes in response to global events without risking product efficacy.

Increasing efficiency to counter rising costs

In cases where diagnostics companies can secure air transport, they also face other price-point pressures that result from global disruption. Flight cancellations drastically reduce available air cargo capacity, driving prices up in a vicious cycle of supply and demand. Freeze-dried products are lighter and more compact because they are not encumbered by water weight and bulky insulated packaging. This means that diagnostics companies can fit significantly more lyophilised products into a single cargo slot, maximising the value of whatever limited flights are available.

Once lyophilised products reach their destination, the efficiency benefits continue. Geopolitical disruptions often lead to stricter border controls and backlogs at customs hubs. While temperature-controlled shipments require priority handling and specialised inspections – making them prone to delays – ambient freeze-dried products face fewer regulatory hurdles, do not require emergency re-icing at customs, and move through backlogs more swiftly. 

The future of freeze drying for diagnostics

As diagnostics organisations continue to grow across international markets, so does their vulnerability to events across the worldwide stage. Spiralling fuel and/or energy costs, severe transportation disruption, and border-control complexities are fast becoming hallmarks of 21^st century logistics operations. These challenges only compound as markets continue to develop and globalise, creating a barrier to growth for the diagnostics sector. In a world where change is the only certainty, companies relying on cold chain operations will be exposed to escalated risk, while early adopters of freeze drying will benefit from enhanced resilience. 

With nearly three decades of experience in lyophilising diagnostic products, Biopharma Group develops formulations, designs lyophilisation cycles, and scales-up and tech transfer in both cake and lyobead formats. In addition to this, the scientific team offers expert consultancy and product audits that assess the storage conditions of freeze-dried product after performing analyses such as MicroPress, modulated differential scanning calorimetry (MDSC), and moisture analysis. By partnering with us, you can future proof your operations against cold chain challenges driven by an increasingly unstable global marketplace. 

Learn more about Biopharma Group’s freeze-drying services for diagnostics here or contact a specialist to discuss how freeze drying could reduce your cold-chain reliance. References:

LaingBuisson: The healthcare diagnostics market is valued at approximately £10.7 billion, with market growth largely driven by NHS outsourcing and steadily increasing demand for diagnostic testing  

Visual Capitalist: Mapped: Where Gas Prices Have Surged Over 100%

Boston Consulting Group: Balancing Cost and Resilience: The New Supply Chain Challenge