How Moderna Uses Decision Intelligence to Enable an Autonomous Cold Chain

Cold chain logistics within pharmaceutical supply chains are undergoing a fundamental transformation as organizations confront rising product complexity, expanding global networks and mounting pressure to reduce waste, cost and manual intervention. Join this webinar to learn about Moderna’s evolving blueprint for enabling an autonomous cold chain, highlighting how blind spot elimination, data consolidation and decision intelligence can unlock meaningful operational change.

Historically, cold chain operations have relied heavily on conservative assumptions, fragmented systems and manual oversight, resulting in over-packaging, excessive air freight usage, prolonged product release timelines and continued dependence on white-glove services. Moderna’s approach challenges these norms by focusing on visibility beyond tracking, emphasizing the importance of understanding actual versus assumed performance across dwell time, routing, transit duration and environmental conditions. By independently verifying shipment status in real time and reconciling contracted versus executed conditions, teams gain the confidence required to change entrenched behaviors.

The session underscores that transformation does not require a disruptive “big bang” deployment. Instead, Moderna advocates for a phased rollout strategy that prioritizes early wins while progressively expanding scope. Initial pilots demonstrated tangible value, including improved receiving operations driven by predictive arrival insights, intelligent comparison of device performance across lanes and data-backed adjustments to carrier and packaging strategies. Importantly, these pilots revealed that reliance on passive or active monitoring alone is insufficient without contextualized interpretation and feedback loops that inform future decisions.

A key theme throughout the webinar is the convergence of planning, operations and quality. By automating quality workflows such as GxP-validated acceptance and rejection of goods at the point of delivery and linking them directly to live logistics data, Moderna reduces product release delays and eliminates unnecessary investigation work caused by false alarms. Performance outcomes continuously feed back into lane qualification and risk assessments, enabling dynamic optimization rather than static compliance.

Looking ahead, the session offers a preview of a “hands-free” supply chain future, where decision intelligence augments human judgment, reduces intervention costs and enables broader modal shifts toward ground transport and expanded carrier networks. The webinar concludes with a practical roadmap, reinforcing that autonomous cold chain capabilities are not aspirational; they are being built today through disciplined execution, data trust and cross-functional alignment.

Register for this webinar to learn how trusted performance data is transforming cold chain operations to drive faster release, lower waste and smarter network design.

Speakers

Ilya Preston, CEO, PAXAFE

Ilya Preston is the CEO and Co-Founder at PAXAFE, an AI-enabled logistics orchestration & decision intelligence SaaS platform. Prior to PAXAFE, Ilya was a Strategy & Operations Consultant at both PwC and KPMG, where he advised Fortune 500 leadership across a spectrum of financial due diligence and supply chain optimization challenges. Prior to his consulting experience, Ilya was a Manager of Supply Chain Strategy at Cummins where he helped shape global strategies pertaining to sourcing, logistics network optimization and strategic planning.

Message Presenter

Jeff Lander, Director, Global Logistics Engineering, Moderna

Jeff has over a decade of experience in cold chain distribution within the pharmaceutical industry and is currently the Director of Global Logistics Engineering at Moderna. During his time at Moderna, Jeff has been instrumental in supporting the commercial distribution of over a billion doses of the Moderna Spikevax COVID-19 vaccine worldwide. Some areas of specialization for him include the creation of a global shipping validation framework, cold chain stability design for finished products, temperature monitoring/shipment visibility and serving as an SME during regulatory inspections and audits for cold chain distribution topics. Prior to Moderna, Jeff was a Senior Consultant at Lean Biologix and Cold Chain Manager at Accutech Packaging, where he was responsible for the life cycle management and implementation of cold chain packaging across global CMO/3PL sites.

Message Presenter

Steve Wrenn, Executive Advisor, TWG, LLC.

Steve is a transformational business and technology leader with deep experience in the design, development, delivery, and leadership of high-performing global operations. During his career, Steve has built teams, opened facilities, and run SC technology in over 25 countries. His leadership and experience spans over 30 years and encompasses roles as varied as being a U.S. Marine Corps Officer, a research engineer at MIT, starting and selling a technology company, and being a senior executive in multiple Fortune 50 companies, such as J&J, CVS, Liberty Mutual and Cisco Systems.

Message Presenter