Yusen to Fly AstraZeneca's Drugs to Australia
The service – which is specifically tailored to temperature sensitive drug products – will ship pharmaceutical from AstraZeneca’s central warehouse in Macclesfield to its distribution centre in Sydney.
Japan-headquartered Yusen said that it will maintain “a stringent temperature regime throughout the supply chain and with all movements made under high security conditions” by applying thermal protection to each pallet it ships on AstraZeneca’s behalf.
The launch follows just a few months after Yusen had an existing distribution deal with AstraZeneca – which covers Europe, India, the US and Japan as well as Australia – renewed.
The importance of this relationship was acknowledged by AstraZeneca freight and logistics lead Julian Wann who said it “has matured since its inception, as we have identified new requirements, Yusen Logistics have been proactive in developing solutions that meet all our needs.
“The decision to give Yusen Logistics this business allows us to assess the relationship in different areas and identify further potential opportunities.”
Africa?
Wann did not make clear which opportunities would be involved, although one potential area could be Africa, which Yusen told Outsourcing-pharma.com was a ‘major target’ for expansion of its distribution business during an interview last month.
Spokesman Clive Lester told us that: “With significant potential growth forecast over the coming 5-10 years due to the forecast of a very strong rise in disposable income, Africa is a major area of interest.”
He added that Yusen was developing services “in cooperation with a major sub-Saharan pharma distribution group who provide GDP warehousing and final mile distribution.”
