Temperature control


The favoured method of shipping pharmaceuticals is by sea, mostly due to its cost-saving benefits. But sometimes, the industry must get products to a location fast; clinical trials are a case in point. In this


instance, air freight is necessary, but does this method present its own unique challenges as far as effectively managing the temperature of products is concerned? Richard Peck, director of RP Pharma Consulting and former global head of the process-controlled transportation centre of excellence at AstraZeneca, tells Peter Littlejohns when products qualify for travel by air freight and discusses some of the innovations that allow companies to control temperatures to reduce the risk of excursions on the journey.


Up in the air C


linical trials aren’t where the majority of pharmaceutical products end up, but with the number of studies executed every year numbering in the tens of thousands (35,050 in 2022, as of 28 November), they are a significant market for transportation and logistics companies. Getting drug products from A to B might seem like one of the simpler tasks on the agenda, after all, in many cases this leg of the supply chain journey is handled by a third-party shipping or air freight service.


But before handing over that responsibility, there are a number of questions to ask that inform whether the products will travel by air, land or sea. The first of these is to do with location. “It depends on where they’re shipping from and to,” says Richard Peck, former global head of the process- controlled transportation centre of excellence at AstraZeneca, who now provides his expertise to the industry as director of RP Pharma Consulting. “If it’s intercontinental it would definitely be air freight


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Clinical Trials Insight / www.worldpharmaceuticals.net


Photobank.kiev.ua/Shutterstock.com


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