Our office is on University Avenue in downtown Palo Alto. Where will the driver stop with a frozen shipper?

Usually in one of the yellow commercial loading zones, which the City exempts from its downtown color zone re-parking rule. Tell us which entrance faces the nearest loading zone, the floor and suite, and who signs, so the box goes from the curb to someone who can check the dry ice and freeze the vials without delay.

Atherton has no commercial district. Which address should our account use for Atherton patients?

Use the licensed suite where your staff actually receive and store stock, which for most practices serving Atherton is in Menlo Park, Palo Alto or another neighbouring city. That city's business license or registry, and its own emergency alert system, then govern the delivery address. One account can hold several sites, and each lot is recorded against the site that received it.

Palo Alto Utilities cut power in the Foothills while our order was in transit. What happens next?

A shutoff decision does not recall a shipment, so the carrier keeps the package in its network until it can deliver, and we follow the tracking and contact your named recipient. If the box reaches your Palo Alto office with its dry ice fully sublimated, we replace it. For other delays, a refund depends on whether the exosome material stayed temperature-controlled the whole way.

Exosome supply for Palo Alto and Atherton practices

A Palo Alto or Atherton practice approved for a wholesale account can order biomolecular signaling vesicles (exosomes), and each order ships frozen from Florida to the Peninsula by carrier on the national lane. While the pharmacy partner waits on its California licence, compounded 503A preparations are not offered to California addresses, Palo Alto and Atherton included, so these accounts carry exosome material only.

Palo Alto and Atherton at a glance

Palo Alto and Atherton at a glance
Item	Palo Alto and Atherton
Counties and alerts	Palo Alto is in Santa Clara County and sends emergency notices through AlertSCC; Atherton is a separate town in San Mateo County, where SMC Alert is the opt-in warning system
City utility	City of Palo Alto Utilities supplies electricity, natural gas, water, wastewater and fiber across the city's 26 square mile service area, and decides any Foothills power shutoff with other City departments
Warmest month	September, with a normal high of 79.6°F and 3.7 days at 90°F or above at the Palo Alto station (NOAA normals, 1991 to 2020)
Delivery lane	National carrier lane
Shipping from Florida	Overnight shipping; arrival can take 1 to 3 business days
Free cold-chain shipping	From 15 units
503A compounded preparations	Not available in California at this time. The pharmacy partner's licensure is granted state by state; this page will say so when it changes.
Licensed practitioners in Palo Alto and Atherton	Dermatology 49, plastic surgery 40, nurse practitioners 589, internal medicine 191, by primary specialty in the NPPES registry as of 7 October 2026
State guide	California sourcing guide

When an order reaches a Palo Alto or Atherton practice

Material leaves Florida frozen and crosses to the Peninsula on the national lane, reaching a Palo Alto or Atherton suite inside the transit window printed in the panel above. Downtown, the slow morning each spring is the May Fete Parade. On Saturday 2 May 2026 the City closed University Avenue from High Street to Waverley Street between 8 a.m. and noon, and Homer Avenue from Bryant to Waverley from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. for the fair in Heritage Park. A University Avenue office that keeps Saturday hours should look up the following year's closure notice before ordering that week.

Power is the other variable. The City has named the Foothills a high fire threat area, and its own utility, working with other City departments, weighs a Public Safety Power Shutoff there case by case, using National Weather Service Red Flag Warnings and input from City Fire and Urban Forestry staff. We never hold a placed order for a shutoff or a closure. A box already on the road sits with the carrier until delivery is possible again, so a practice that plans to close orders once it is open.

Cold-chain receiving at a Palo Alto or Atherton address

Palo Alto's heat arrives late. The station in town records its warmest normal highs in September, not July, so a shipper left on a sunny loading dock or in a closed lobby is most at risk after Labor Day. Sublimating dry ice also adds carbon dioxide to any small room it waits in.

Downtown streets run on color zone parking, and a car that overstays is ticketed if it re-parks in the same zone that enforcement day. Yellow commercial loading zones sit outside that re-parking rule, which is where a driver will look to stop, so the account should name the entrance nearest one and a signer who can reach it quickly. That person confirms dry ice remains, logs the arrival time and lot number, and moves the vials to a freezer. In line with the manufacturer's handling instructions, stock is held at -20°C long term and at 4°C after thawing.

Rules that apply to a Palo Alto or Atherton order

A business with a fixed place of business in Palo Alto applies for a business registry certificate within 30 days of opening. The fee is $54, due by 31 March each year, with a $25 penalty after 30 April and a second after 30 May. The Measure K business tax is separate and charged per square foot, and spaces under 10,000 square feet are exempt.
Palo Alto's Building Division bars moving furniture or stock into a converted suite, and bars tenant employees from occupying it, until inspection approval of temporary occupancy is granted, with sign-offs that can include Fire, Planning and City of Palo Alto Utilities. A new suite joins the account as a delivery address only after that approval.
Atherton's zoning code divides the town into two residential districts, a parks and open space district and a public facilities and school district, with no commercial district. The Town issues business licences from Town Hall at 80 Fair Oaks Lane and accepts only cash or check, and a business run from a residence needs a home occupation permit from Planning first.

Federal and California rules for an order

Cities bordering Palo Alto and Atherton with their own rules

Because Atherton zones no land for offices, a practice whose patients live there normally receives at a suite in a neighbouring city, and two of those sit in San Mateo County. Menlo Park requires a business license of every business located or operating within its limits, taxed on gross receipts or headcount, and asks owners to confirm with its Planning Division that the use is allowed at the address. East Palo Alto, also in San Mateo County, levies its own business tax through an outside administrator. Both follow SMC Alert rather than AlertSCC in an emergency. San Francisco, further up the Peninsula, has its own page.

San Francisco and Marin

Palo Alto and Atherton questions

Our office is on University Avenue in downtown Palo Alto. Where will the driver stop with a frozen shipper?: Usually in one of the yellow commercial loading zones, which the City exempts from its downtown color zone re-parking rule. Tell us which entrance faces the nearest loading zone, the floor and suite, and who signs, so the box goes from the curb to someone who can check the dry ice and freeze the vials without delay.
Atherton has no commercial district. Which address should our account use for Atherton patients?: Use the licensed suite where your staff actually receive and store stock, which for most practices serving Atherton is in Menlo Park, Palo Alto or another neighbouring city. That city's business license or registry, and its own emergency alert system, then govern the delivery address. One account can hold several sites, and each lot is recorded against the site that received it.
Palo Alto Utilities cut power in the Foothills while our order was in transit. What happens next?: A shutoff decision does not recall a shipment, so the carrier keeps the package in its network until it can deliver, and we follow the tracking and contact your named recipient. If the box reaches your Palo Alto office with its dry ice fully sublimated, we replace it. For other delays, a refund depends on whether the exosome material stayed temperature-controlled the whole way.

Sources and review

All sources accessed 7 October 2026.

Last reviewed 7 October 2026 by Benn Bluestein-Veyra, M.Sc. Organic Chemistry. Availability is read from the state registry at the time of the request.

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