pharmaceuticals
that close co-operation could include helping established pharma customers move into new geographical markets. “Pharma companies take a while until they are settled
in new countries. Because we are a partner for their worldwide businesses, we follow them closely to prepare their entry into certain countries – like China, for example,” Maresch stated. “We first help them to bring in test shipments or whatever
kind of high-value substances that they need to develop something. Then we try to grow with them when they produce generic or other products and help them develop a supply chain strategy and be a vital part of that chain.” Many major global forwarders have also identified the
international pharma air cargo sector as a key market for further development. Geodis Wilson, for example, is targeting the market for pharma products requiring shipment by air at temperatures of 2°-25°C with the development of a packaging solution called the G Box.
G BOX Martin Svantesson, the forwarder’s director vertical markets, claimed the G Box has already been “well received” by one major multinational pharma manufacturer, which has used it for the movement of 400 shipments from the UK into China “with no temperature excursions. And we saved them a lot of money,” he added. Geodis Wilson explained that once a G Box is sealed
after loading, it is wrapped in silvered polythene and then sealed and over-wrapped for extra protection against external temperature variations. Another major global forwarder, Kuehne + Nagel,
revealed to Air Logistics China that it is set to roll out a worldwide multimodal cool/cold chain end-to-end solution targeted at the pharma and healthcare industry from early next year. The company already offers a range of integrated freight and logistics services in that market. Now, the company is planning to take that involvement a major step further, reported John O’Sullivan, the US-
based global senior vice president for pharmaceutical and healthcare at Kuehne + Nagel. “We are ready to globally roll out a specialised cool/cold
chain product specifically for the pharma/healthcare industry from early 2011,” he stated. “Shipments will be picked up in refrigerated vehicles, shipped using an air freight or sea freight product, and then delivered to final destination in a temperature-regulated vehicle. So it will be a complete solution involving the whole logistics chain.” O’Sullivan added that to support that development,
Kuehne + Nagel is investing both in further training of personnel “to bring on local knowledge” and cold chain facilities/cross docking operations.
CHINA MARKET Major air express operators, which were at one time often reluctant to get involved in moving temperature-sensitive pharma/life science products due to the complexities of looking after such shipments, have also in recent years become much more prominent in that market. Among those active in China, DHL, for example, earlier
this year announced it had doubled the number of global depots for its life sciences industry Clinical Trials Logistics service from 8 to 16 sites, an expansion which included the addition of China and India. “The DHL group has identified the whole area of life science logistics as a growth sector in which we are already engaged and want to get more such business in the future,” declared Christof Ehrhart, executive vice president corporate communications, Deutsche Post DHL. Meanwhile, TNT Express is planning further significant
investment in two of its pharma/life science sector services – Clinical Express, a courier service dedicated to the clinical research and pharmaceutical industries, and Hospital Express, which handles products being transported from large pharma manufacturers to hospitals – in various parts of the world, including Asia. TNT’s existing Asian presence already includes a large healthcare centre in Japan, which caters largely for that country’s domestic market, and a full pharma GDP-compliant logistics centre in Singapore.
18 AIR LOGISTICSCHINA
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