Company insight
What does it take to stay on top in pharma air freight?
In taking on his new role, Joel Wobma, global head of pharmaceutical logistics at Air France KLM Martinair Cargo (AFKLMP), is setting out to affirm the company’s commitment to excellence in serving the pharma industry. Jim Banks investigates what that means in practical terms.
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n December, Joel Wobma left his role as country manager for Chile at Air France KLM to become the global head of its pharmaceutical logistics operations. As a key player in this logistics chain, the company handles the delivery of temperature-sensitive and time-critical pharmaceutical products, including medicines and vaccines, to more than 300 destinations worldwide.
What led you to take on this new job, and what does it involve?
AFKLMP is expanding its pharma logistics with AI-driven innovation.
“Logistics optimisation has always been a huge interest for me, and this role combines that with driving the business, and I am happy to have joined the cargo division, especially working on the pharma sector. We have a few things to achieve, partly because we are seeing a slight change in market dynamic after Covid.” “We are still digging into how that is changing, asking big pharma companies and forwarders to see what their future strategy will be. Pharma deals with sensitive products that must be delivered on time, so the objective is still to make sure we are taking away any hurdles to that.”
Why has pharma gained such a strategic importance to AFKLMP? “Pharma will always be present and is so important to society. With demographic changes and populations getting older, and with biopharmaceuticals geared towards specific patient needs, the industry will have an increasing role to play. As an airline, we want to be part of this expected increase. “Despite supply chains becoming more sophisticated in terms of speed,
temperature control and compliance, we believe we have strong capabilities to handle this world wide. It requires a dedicated strategic focus to meet those demands.”
There are plans to increase cold chain capacity in 2025 at the Paris Charles de Gaulle hub, and attain IATA CEIV recertification. How do these and other steps help you meet the needs of pharma clients? Over the years, we have been investing in our cool chain programme, investing in knowledge and expertise to achieve the highest standards in the industry. And we are expecting delivery of additional cool chain capacity in our Paris hub, so we can offer even more shipments. We can influence temperature controlled capacity in our warehouses, and that is where the investment is going because we feel there will be a significant increase in packages that must be kept in the range of 2-8˚C.” “In India, we will open Hyderabad with KLM, so we need to invest in capacity on the ground. We are closely following changes in the industry, which is increasingly using constant tracking of where packages are and what the temperature is. We want to
World Pharmaceutical Frontiers /
www.worldpharmaceuticals.net
be able to play a role in those developments.”
As well as capacity and cool chain equipment, what else is required for AFKLMP to be a good partner to pharma? “We have good relationships with all players in the market, and that is what I am focusing on. We are having discussions with shippers, container suppliers and forwarders to see how we can grow with
them. In the cargo world, things change quickly, impacting all players in the supply chain, so we need a long-term vision.”
Technological advances, most obviously artificial intelligence (AI), will have an impact on supply chain management. How do you see AI changing the game? “I am still learning about how it can enhance not only R&D and production processes, but also logistics. Better forecasting of shipments is to be expected, and that is key to the logistics chain, having the right data, and offering the correct capacity at the correct price.”
What else do you expect to emerge from AFKLMP’s review of its product portfolio? “The priority is to make changes to the strategy that best suit our customers. Clients want their shipments as fast as possible, so the focus won’t change. The basics stay the same, but there are new kinds of pharma products, and we need to take a deep dive into the role we play in delivering them.” ●
www.afklcargo.com 37
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