Koovea: an intelligent system for monitoring temperature-sensitive drugs

Koovea offers a service for monitoring temperature-sensitive drugs that ensures safe packaging conditions throughout the entire shipping process. The startup has just raised €60K through Créalia Occitanie. The interest-free loan will help the startup finance its R&D and strengthen its own capital before launching its product in June 2018.

One out of every two drugs is temperature-sensitive. These fragile and expensive drugs are vulnerable to alterations during shipping if the cold chain is broken. This could result in serious consequences: time lost in transit, significant financial loss for the laboratories, safety risks for patients if they consume altered, ineffective or even dangerous drugs. In response to this problem, Koovea has invented a connected tracking and recording solution that reports data in real time.

Adrien Content and his associates worked together for two and a half years to develop this solution. The incubator and mechatronics platform at IMT Mine Alès provided the startup with the support it needed to overcome technical challenges and create a prototype. This dual assistance combining both economic and technological support helped structure the company as it developed and offered the opportunity to present its innovation at the Las Vegas Consumer Electronic Show (CES) in January 2018.

From manufacturing to use, the integrity of the cold chain is guaranteed

Koovea’s solution makes it possible to track the temperature and location of batches of drugs in real time, providing an opportunity to react if necessary. Its major benefit is that it sends warnings if it detects a deterioration in storage conditions for a supply of products.  The young company’s solution is based on three elements. First, it relies on a flexible temperature sensor the size of a credit card, which features a system for recording and displaying data.  This sensor is complemented by an intelligent and self-reliant router which can report data in real time, anywhere in the world. Finally, a “Koovea” application provides an optimal solution for sharing and using this data.

The device is currently in the midst of a full-scale test phase in the French Hérault department. It has already proven its appeal by winning several awards: Coup de Pousse 2016, Bourse French Tech Emergence 2016, Booste Ton Projet 2016. Today, the startup’s growth has reached a new milestone thanks to the interest-free innovation loan it received from Créalia Occitanie.  Koovea makes no secret of its desire to become a benchmark in the intelligent monitoring of drug product. It then hopes to branch out to include other costly and sensitive products.

Better monitoring solutions for fragile and expensive products

Koovea’s solution is an interesting one for stakeholders in the medical sector: specifically, for laboratories and transport systems for blood, bone marrow and organs. Yet other sectors could also benefit from intelligent real-time monitoring. All the sensitive and expensive products handled in the agri-food sector, viticulture, cosmetics, luxury market and the art world could benefit from this type of solution. This is especially true since Koovea aims to extend its range to integrate other controlled parameters, such as brightness and humidity.  This expansion would pave the way for numerous fields of application. The data could even make it possible to predict the time, place and circumstances under which a product was altered.