Pharmaceutical industry moves one trillion dollars per year. The last few years we have seen not only growth of pharmaceutical products being carried by air, but also increased regulation and pressure on supply chain costs.
Air cargo remains a highly important part of pharmaceutical supply chain and many airlines have responded to the challenge of offering Good Distribution Practice (GDP) compliant facilities and services. But how does the entire pharmaceutical sector understand the complexities of the transportation part of the business? When creating our e-learning course for Pharmaceutical Handling we found that among specific equipment, storage facilities and harmonised handling procedures, above all, it requires a strong cooperation among the parties in entire value chain as there are still issues to be solved.
Players in the industry should keep processes simple and speak the same “transportation language” as this sector simply can’t work same way they do in laboratories or pharmaceutical production lines. I personally believe that cooperation is the key to success to harmonise processes and avoid unnecessary investments. Perishable business has been the part of airfreight since it started and we don’t need to invent the wheel again to spend too much time, energy and valuable recourses for that. The industry needs simplified processes, adequate training and quality audits to fine tune current way of working to have enough resources to keep facilities and equipment in proper condition.
We at Airport College wanted share our knowledge and created Pharmaceutical Handling e-Learning online course, which will be available soon. If you have interest, please check our web page later on this month to find more information. Have a great May 2015!
With best regards, Pertti