The Center of Excellence for Independent Validators on Pharmaceutical Handling (CEIV) Pharma community is expanding on both sides of the world with new groups at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol and Changi Airport.
At the European and Asian airports, the organizations involved number 21 and vary from local government bodies, to airlines, ground handlers, freight forwarders and logistics firms.
The IATA CEIV Pharma is a standardised global certification programme that helps companies comply with existing global pharmaceutical guidelines. With these guidelines, shippers can be confident that medicines that are temperature and handling sensitive can reach patients in good condition, writes Rob Coppinger.
For instance, certification requires companies to maintain a cargo hold temperature of between 10-25 degrees Celsius and ensure appropriate handling from tarmac to loading and unloading.
Last year, the global pharmaceutical industry spent more than $10 billion on cold chain logistics, with the amount expected to exceed $13 billion by 2019. IATA is involved in the Schiphol airport community. IATA’s European Regional Vice President, Rafael Schvartzman, said: "A single mistake can destroy an entire batch of medicines. It is therefore essential to establish harmonized handling procedures, strong accountability and cooperation between all parties.”
Twelve of the 21 are at Schiphol. As well as IATA, they are, WFS, dnata, Swissport, Air France–KLM–Martinair Cargo, De Jong Special Services, D.J. Middelkoop & Zn., Jan de Rijk Logistics, IJS Global/GEFCO, VCK Logistics, Yusen Logistics and Cyberfreight.
Based at Changi, there are six and they include, Singapore Airlines, Global Airfreight International, Expeditors Singapore, CEVA Logistics Singapore, freight forwarders Schenker Singapore, and the the airport itself which will also help the companies.
The 20th and 21st organizations involved are, the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore and Singapore Workforce Development Agency which will co-fund the costs for certification.
Yam Kum Weng, Executive Vice President, Air Hub & Development, Changi Airport Group (CAG), said, “Through the IATA CEIV Pharma certification programme, CAG and our partners go one step further by taking a proactive approach in enhancing our cold chain handling capabilities to better serve the pharmaceuticals industry.”
In another development, Düsseldorf Airport Cargo has become the first company in Germany to be CEIV Pharma certified.
