Pioneering Pharma Logistics: Technological Innovations for Safe and Efficient Transport

The pharmaceutical industry faces unique and complex challenges when it comes to logistics. From temperature control requirements to varying regional regulations, pharmaceutical companies must rely on experience and tech-forward logistics providers to support their innately sensitive supply chain and transportation needs.

The logistics industry is going through a rapid, exciting revolution with modern technologies and new ideas surfacing every day. There is no doubt that technology can play a pivotal role in safe, efficient logistics for pharmaceutical products—saving time, money and delivering important products to those who need it the most.

CEVA’s Eric ten Kate, Global Sector Leader, Healthcare, participates often in discussions on the intersection of pharma, tech and logistics. Ten Kate uses his industry expertise to inform on the impacts of technology and the challenges faced shipping pharmaceuticals. He responds here to several questions from recent industry speaking engagements.
 

What are the main challenges when it comes to transporting pharmaceuticals?

The main challenges for transporting pharmaceuticals consist of aligning all the different stakeholders throughout the process from preparing the shipment, to collection, clearance and delivery of the goods to its destination. Precise end-to-end orchestration is required to ensure any unforeseen disruptions are prevented. A good understanding of local and regional regulations is also key.

Temperature control is another challenging aspect of transporting pharmaceuticals. It needs to be extremely clear at what temperature the goods can be safely stored and transported. The use of real-time data loggers allows for monitoring these conditions and possible quick intervention to make sure that product that is shipped via air is arriving in the right condition. If upfront it is known that the product is not meeting the strict requirements, why would we ship it halfway across the world? This space can be utilized by other shippers which reduces environmental impact as well.

Finally, the right packaging needs to be validated, which might lead to shipping in a bulky format to withstand external influences. The availability of these containers can be an issue in certain parts of the world.

 

What recent technologies are vital when it comes to transporting pharmaceuticals?

End-to-end visibility is crucial. From the planning stage until final delivery, full visibility helps from an insurance and quality assurance perspective. Real-time monitoring is key while we try to mitigate the impact of external conditions on product shipments. Temperature-controlled packaging is equipped with the technology to capture real-time data and when analyzed over time, this data provides a better understanding of the challenges faced at each stage of the shipping journey. These key data analytics allow us to mitigate the harmful impacts to the shipments. Clear forecasting is also particularly important in this process as it allows for advanced planning and helps mitigate any impact an unforeseen event could have on the products during transit.

 

Tell us about some of the technological innovations relating to transporting pharmaceuticals that CEVA supports.

For CEVA, our CEVA for Patients solution is focused on developing end-to-end visibility by acting as the control tower for customers. To develop this robust end-to-end visibility, we leverage all possible data points, such as the loggers in the packaging material, the telematics of the planes used, the geographical location of the trucks and the temperatures inside the vehicles based on the data points the truck provides, and so much more. At the same time, we are exploring options to put an additional software layer on top of this setup to allow us to become more proactive.

 

What are the benefits of track-and-trace technologies when moving pharmaceuticals?

If used correctly, it enables the ability to monitor the products on a near real-time basis, allowing intervention, if required. We can proactively use the data gathered on previous routes to determine the critical areas where possible excursions could occur. Taking preventive measures upfront reduces the chances of temperature excursions.

 

How can technologies like the Internet of Things (IoT) and robotics be used in the sector?

IoT and robotics can be used in the planning aspect of the shipments, predicting possible weather interruptions, for example. The challenge with shipping pharmaceuticals is that the respective route risk assessments need to be adhered to from a quality perspective. Further integration of the quality aspects into IoT and robotics solutions would make it easier for the customer to approve any amendment using the different available data sources.

 

What issues in pharmaceutical shipping do you feel do not yet have solutions or need better solutions?

I think there is room for improvement when it comes to handing the goods over to the ground handlers—shipments are often left sitting on the tarmac too long, leading temperature excursions. The industry has come a long way using innovative products like cool dollies to mitigate this issue. Another area for improvement is to have clear, unanimous codes for shipping pharmaceutical products. The industry is looking to become more sustainable—and empty returns of temperature-controlled packaging units should be prevented as much as possible.
 

Are there situations where transporting pharma is more challenging, like war zones or disaster areas, and how do you overcome that?

Last mile delivery is often the costliest component in the overall logistics chain. To be more precise, last mile delivery accounts for around 60% of all logistics cost in the pharmaceutical industry.

There are several reasons as to why last mile delivery of pharmaceutical products has the highest cost, and it’s not only because of temperature and GDP (Good Distribution Practices) requirements. If we scratch beneath the surface, last mile delivery in the pharma industry is not a one-size-fits-all model.

For example, delivering medicine to remote village clinics in Africa; these clinics are not equipped to receive high volumes of stock, so small parcels are delivered frequently. In South Sudan, CEVA Logistics delivers malaria medication boxes to various village clinic with distances between the clinics of around 100 kilometers coupled with non-existent infrastructure making these journeys complex.

In humanitarian disaster zones, getting the last mile delivery to a patient in need is even more complex and costly. Reefer containers are transformed into shift pharmaceutical warehouses, and it is quite common to have trained and armed personnel safeguarding the stock 24/7.

On the other hand, many sophisticated last mile deliveries can be classified as white glove operations where everyone in the process has the right training, mindset and attitude towards delivering excellence.