DHL Global Forwarding, the air and sea freight specialist within the Deutsche Post DHL Group, and LifeConEx, a fully-owned DHL subsidiary and leading provider of end-to-end cold chain solutions have won the Life Science Logistics Partner of the Year 2012 award in China. The prestigious award was presented to DHL Global Forwarding and LifeConEx by the International Quality & Productivity Center (IQPC) at this year’s Bio / Pharma Cold Chain China 2012 conference in Beijing, further forging their global leadership in this niche market.  
    “The award recognizes DHL’s expertise in the life science sector in China and our commitment to high levels of service standards and full regulatory compliance. It is also testament to our key goals of patient safety and cost efficiency for our customers. I would like to congratulate the team that has worked very hard to achieve this,” said Kelvin Leung, CEO, Asia Pacific, DHL Global Forwarding.
    The top Chinese logistics industry award pays tribute to the logistics experts at DHL and LifeConEx and the training they have had in handling Life Science & Healthcare (LSH) products. Managing temperature consistency during air freight transportation in China is a major challenge for logistics companies handling temperature-sensitive products because of the complexity of the process itself, which involves numerous touch points and handlers. Life Science & Healthcare companies are concerned with temperature variations during transit because they can affect the viability of the product.  Poor infrastructure at some airports compounds these worries, prompting companies to actively seek those experts that can mitigate the risk of transporting their life-saving products.
    DHL Global Forwarding and LifeConEx have overcome these challenges by constructing DHL Life Science Competence Centers near Shanghai and Beijing airports to ensure temperature consistency from the point of import or export within China to the final delivery point abroad. These temperature-controlled storage facilities combined with trained Life Science & Healthcare personnel reduce the risk of temperature deviation while in China.
    “We have established dedicated teams in sales, customer service and operations to provide end-to-end integrated process mapping and 24/7/365 cold chain process management and intervention for each customer.  By leveraging the relationships established with our airline partners, ground handling agents and temperature-controlled container providers; our experienced Life Science & Healthcare team operates seamlessly regardless of INCO terms to ensure the integrity of the product,” said David Bang, CEO, LifeConEx.
    In its bid for the accolade, two case studies were provided that showed why prominent pharmaceutical and biotech companies chose DHL and LifeConEx over other cold chain logistics service providers in China. The first case study explained how a shipment of insulin was delivered from a Suzhou warehouse to distribution facilities in Manila, Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong and Singapore. The temperature of the products was maintained between 2 and 8 degrees Celsius and regular updates were provided at every checkpoint to a dedicated quality assurance and intervention team, which was ready to take corrective actions when needed. 
    In the second case study, a leading European pharmaceutical company needed to ship a consignment of antibodies and vaccines from its Shanghai warehouse to Lyon, France, via Charles De Gaulle airport in Paris. Dry ice was used to power a temperature-controlled container which maintained temperatures between 2 and 8 degrees Celsius. DHL and LifeConEx implemented several re-icing procedures throughout the final delivery of the products which carefully followed pre-set calculations, ensuring product integrity.
    Steve Huang, CEO, DHL Global Forwarding China added: “This award goes to DHL’s strong team in China that’s dedicated to always ensuring customers are satisfied, service quality is improved and excellence is simply delivered.”

(source:transportweekly)