pharmaceuticals Healthy C
oinciding with those service developments, ever tighter ‘pharma’ industry regulations are driving a requirement for more specialised international logistics services which ensure the integrity of such products throughout the
supply chain. Among the results of these trends has been a surge
during recent times in the number of new air cargo services and related equipment developments targeting pharma traffic introduced by airlines, forwarders and other logistics sector players. On the airline front, for example,
Tony Wright, managing director of UK-based Exelsius Cold Chain Management Consultancy, said the number of international carriers offering specific pharma services has surged “from probably around five or six 18 months ago to a current figure of more like 26 or 27 airlines”. Many of the new services being
introduced offer increasingly sophisticated temperature- controlled transport in various types of air cargo container but developments are also taking place in relation to the movement of ambient temperature pharma products. Some of the factors driving the growing global
demand for air cargo services and supporting equipment to move pharma products are outlined by Thomas Persson, CEO of Swedish company Envirotainer, a leading developer/ lessor of air cargo containers for temperature-sensitive goods.
12 AIR LOGISTICSCHINA
Growing global demand for the air transportation of pharmaceutical products is encouraging many leading international air cargo and air express service providers to further step up their focus on the market. Phillip Hastings reports
business “The pharma industry is becoming an ever more
worldwide business, both in terms of destination markets and production locations, including a lot of new markets where the handling conditions and the time containers might spend out in the open exposed to extreme heat or cold can vary,” Persson stated.
CONSOLIDATION “Another factor is site consolidation. The processes involved in manufacturing pharmaceuticals can be very delicate, so when a manufacturer finds that a certain plant is really good at making a particular product, they may look to consolidate all the manufacturing in that location. If they are sending that product to more and more countries around the world, then they have an increasing need to use air cargo services to reach those markets.” In the case of pharma air cargo markets in the Asia
Pacific region, most service/equipment providers say their business still predominantly involves the intercontinental inbound movement of products manufactured in North America and Europe. They point out that with many Asian countries in general and China in particular now among the fastest-
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