pharmaceuticals


total grasp of this entire process is unrealistic. So they leave the international movement of goods to others by outsourcing their complete supply chain movements to professionals such as freight forwarders and third-party logistics providers. The widening requirements mean that


an increasing number of national and international regulatory authorities are looking more closely at how temperature- controlled pharma shipments are being managed, and this will tighten up supply chain procedures. Evidence of this can be seen in the number of air carriers, third- party logistics services providers and packaging and storage firms bulking up the effectiveness of their cold-chain services. UPS, FedEx, DB Schenker, DHL, Kuehne + Nagel and most other third- party life sciences providers now have


specified cold-chain services. Air carriers offering specified cold-chain services


include American Airlines, Continental, Delta and other members of the SkyTeam Cargo alliance, Cathay Pacific, Singapore Airlines, Swiss, Air Canada and Emirates. Cold-chain unit load device (ULD) manufacturers, such as Envirotainer and CSafe, and a growing number of packaging and instrumentation manufacturers have also joined the race to profit from the pharma industry.


Brooks: “we have to find out how to be able to meet double-digit pharma growth with single-digit air capacity growth”


At Zurich-headquartered Swiss WorldCargo, the air freight wing of


Swiss International Air Lines, a spokesman assures that the carrier has handling and quality standards that “are uniform throughout the world” ensuring that pharmaceuticals are shipped at an “absolutely constant transport temperature”. He added: “Goods are transported in special containers with a constant temperature that can be individually set between –20°C and +20°C.” An American Airlines Cargo (AA Cargo) marketing white paper


states that pharmaceutical products are considered to be one of the fastest-growing and most valuable cargo commodity categories handled by global air freight carriers – with biotech and pharmaceutical products representing the highest value per pound weight of any cargo being shipped by the airlines. “Twenty-five percent of pharmaceuticals need temperature


control, 65 percent of biotech products need it, along with 100 percent of vaccines,” says Dave Brooks, president AA Cargo, citing data from IMS Health. “Fuel prices are up and security constraints could hamper air capacity,” he noted. “So we have to find out how to be able to meet double-digit pharma growth with single-digit air capacity growth.”


GUIDELINES The World Health Organization (WHO) outlines in its working document Good Distribution Practices for Pharmaceutical Products that all parties involved in the distribution of pharmaceutical products


should share responsibility for the quality and safety of products. All entities should be traceable, depending on the type of product and on national policies and legislation. There should be written procedures and records to ensure traceability, WHO maintains. The guidelines clearly add that all vehicles and equipment used to distribute, store, or handle


Cool customer in the global supply chain – Envirotainer


Sweden-based Envirotainer leases temperature- controlled containers to pharmaceutical companies and their logistics partners that can eliminate the effects of temperature change on pharmaceuticals. Healthcare companies that produce insulin,


protein, vaccines, blood plasma and saturated solutions need services that can ensure an unbroken cold chain during the complete transportation life cycle by keeping the temperature of a shipment stable despite fluctuations in the ambient temperature surrounding the container. Nearly all insulated containers with refrigerants are defined as


‘passive’ temperature protection, while ‘active’ protection usually involves battery-powered or plug-in ULDs, heating as well as cooling machinery, and the ability to report data not just at the end of a shipment transit, but at intermediate points. For shipments of healthcare products, Envirotainer offers two cold chain solutions for reliable product cold chains: the t2 active


temperature control system, based on dry ice refrigeration; and the e1 and e2 active temperature control system, based on compressor cooling and electrical heating. Accreditation as a Qualified


Envirotainer Provider (QEP) shows that a service provider can meet its obligations to the shipper as defined by statutory guidelines. Global forwarder Panalpina is one


of the world’s biggest QEP providers of active cooling solutions – an accreditation showing that it has achieved the strict requirements of Envirotainer’s Training and Quality Program for Good Distribution Practices of temperature-sensitive medical products. “More and more perishable, temperature-sensitive pharmaceutical products need to be forwarded over great distances. Demand is soaring,” noted Thomas Berger, global head of industry vertical healthcare at Panalpina.


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