Kuehne+Nagel (K+N) has opened two airside pharma and healthcare hubs in Belgium and South Africa as it expands its global network of temperature-controlled facilities that handle the distribution of vaccines and other pharma and healthcare products.
The new GxP-certified hubs in Brussels in Belgium and Johannesburg in South Africa have direct tarmac access to further minimize the risk of temperature changes and ensure product integrity during the logistics journey, K+N said in a release.
“The new premises have dedicated areas for all ranges of temperature-sensitive products: <-20°C, +2° to +8°C and +15° to +25°C. In addition, these facilities have the ability to change or add dry ice as required for deep frozen shipment where temperatures need to be maintained below -60°C,” it said.
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In Brussels, the new air logistics hub is located in the center of Brucargo within Brussels airport, the first airport in the world with an IATA CEIV pharma certification.
The new facility consists of 15,546 square meters of warehousing space and is fully connected to the recently extended Geel Contract Logistics pharma warehousing facility, as well as the pan-European KN PharmaChain Road Logistics Network managed from Luxembourg.
In Johannesburg, the expanded KN PharmaChain airside facility at the international airport answers all temperature-sensitive cargo handling, consolidation and storage requirements, and offers a number of value-added logistics services before distribution in South Africa or into Africa.
Additionally, the new facility provides a unique temperature-controlled plane side solution through the use of state-of-the-art KN PharmaChain cool dollies. Built to accommodate both lower deck and main deck pallet sizes, the cool dollies protect the integrity of the cargo from the aircraft directly into the airside facility’s GxP coolers.
K+N said that new pharma & healthcare products tend to be more valuable, more temperature-sensitive, and have additional requirements for storage and transportation conditions that are not easily met globally.
“The new hubs in Brussels and Johannesburg will ensure that our pharma & healthcare customers can fully rely on Kuehne+Nagel to handle the specific challenges of integrity as well as provide end-to-end visibility and regulatory compliance along the logistics journey of their sensitive products,” it continued.
Kuehne+Nagel currently has over 230 GxP-certified pharma and healthcare operations worldwide located in the US, the UK, Denmark, Spain, Luxembourg, Italy, France, Singapore, India, Panama, the UAE and Australia.
Photo courtesy of Kuehne+Nagel
