It may not be the biggest conference on the global agenda, but last week in Basel the “Pharmaceuticals in the Cool Chain” Conference from the Cool Chain Association included some thoughtful discussion.
The two-day event ran October 1 and 2 and featured an on-site visit to the Swissport pharma operation at Basel as well as an exhibition area in which participants could browse and network.
Chairman of the CCA & CEO of Jan de Rijk Logistics Sebastian Scholte welcomed delegates at the opening of this third event in the series.
One of the more interesting sessions included Global Director Sales of Finnair Cargo Pasi Nopanen who spoke of Temperature Sensitive Pharmaceuticals in Air Cargo.
The case study here was even more interesting as it was delivered by the industry’s first airline to receive the IATA Center of Excellence for Independent Validators (CEIV Pharma) in Pharmaceutical Logistics.
“The CEIV helps organizations and the entire air cargo supply chain to get on the right track to achieve pharmaceutical handling excellence,” Pasi said.
In another development, FT learned that Mr. Nopanen is leaving his post at AY toward the end of October 2015.
Winds of Change
Mr. Andreas Gmuer of Camelot Management Consultants AG spoke of trends in the Pharmaceutical business.
Earlier, the Fifth Camelot Management Consultants Pharma Management Radar Survey brought forth these points:
“A wind of change is in the air when it comes to logistics in the pharmaceutical industry.
“Although most companies are still quite optimistic with regard to the current business climate, there seems to be a rising awareness of the important role logistics might play in current and future challenges such as price pressure.
“And new service offerings ‘beyond the pill’ could also affect logistics substantially: The majority of industry players are currently executing focus initiatives in various fields of logistics, including organization, process, and network setup.
“At the same time, however, there is still some room for optimization with regard to various strategic changes in logistics to further increase competitiveness.”
Door 2 Door
Mr. Bernhard C. Bärtschi, head of Sales at Sky Cell, a provider of temperature-controlled container solutions, tackled the subject of “How to Establish a ‘Door-2-Door’ Solution by Air from Basel to Emerging Markets.”
Although that topic might cover movement of perishables to and from any destination, Bernhard made it interesting.
Speaking of gatherings of this type, Mr. Bärtschi pointed to content as the main driver rather than event size:
“Mostly, temperature deviations and non-quality costs are the result of human error, reloading at airports with no or only limited availability of cold chambers on site, long clearance waiting times due to discrepancies in clearance paperwork, or the last mile of transportation,” he said.
“These are some of the challenges our customers face every day and which I was aware of from my own personal experiences.
“In light of the major challenges that the pharma industry is already facing, and will continue to face, in the development of the emerging markets, I felt it was important to bring to the table my own knowledge and experience of emerging markets as my way of contributing to the growth of the pharmaceutical markets,” Mr. Bärtschi said.
More: http://coolchain.org/
Geoffrey
