Case study

Pharmaceuticals worth $1.4 Million shipped via ocean freight

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Time and temperature sensitive pharmaceutical products require a highly specialized supply chain.

With a focus on optimizing the pharmaceutical supply chain, there has been a growth within the industry in recent years towards the use of ocean freight.

Developing technologies for temperature-controlled freight containers and logistics have positioned ocean freight as a major medium of transport for the pharmaceutical industry.

Our customer is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company dedicated to researching, developing and commercializing innovative therapeutics in medical dermatology.

With a strong R&D pipeline, and a global network of research centers, this customer required a specialist pharmaceutical shipping company capable of reliably transporting its valuable research and products from the UK to the US via the most efficient method.

Customer

Clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company

Challenge

Transport pharma materials worth over $1.4 million from UK to US with minimal transport costs

Solution

End-to-end logistics with temperature-controlled and GPS tracked ocean freight containers

Locations

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Challenges

$1.4 million of pharmaceutical materials

Historically, a significant amount of pharmaceutical ocean shipping has been attributed to low value, high-volume products.

The high value of the freight for this particular project meant that Biocair needed to implement a secure end-to-end supply chain solution.

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In addition to Boston, Biocair has offices in 7 other locations across the US

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Solution

Cost-efficient shipping

"Biocair carried out a viability assessment and then decided that, by implementing an ocean pharmaceutical freight solution, the cost for shipping the material to the customer would be drastically lower than that of air freight.

It was estimated that three aircraft containers would have been required for this particular project, whereas only one ocean shipping container was needed.”

Ryan Nieradka

East Coast Operations Manager, Biocair Inc

Biocair’s team of logistics experts liaised with the ocean liner and gained pre-approval of the product prior to shipping.

 

Temperature-controlled freight

Shipping pharmaceuticals requires a high level of safety expertise. As the pharmaceutical freight needed to be transported under strict temperature-controlled conditions to maintain product integrity, Biocair installed custom temperature monitoring and GPS hardware within the containers.


Through shared access to temperature and location data, Biocair enabled all to view the data when required.

"Biocair was able to track and monitor the movement of these materials from collection in the UK to delivery at the customer’s site in the US.

As well as temperature and location, we monitored the humidity of the containers – this was particularly important as any change would have drastically increased the risk of the shipment. Biocair would have then implemented its contingency procedures, ensuring the integrity of this product was not compromised.”

Andrew Moss

Operations Manager, Biocair Scotland

Industry-leading expertise and levels of support

Throughout this project a global customer service team oversaw the operation and provided updates and peace of mind to the customer. As ocean freight is becoming a viable pharmaceutical shipping alternative to air cargo, it is vital to work with a courier that can liaise with all the key stakeholders involved.

Summary

Careful planning, coordination and communication between the client and Biocair at each phase maximized the logistical steps needed for a successful operation. Biocair’s global network of facilities, including its Edinburgh (UK) and Raleigh Durham (US) offices, collaborated extensively and supervised the project throughout.

When faced with critical timelines, life science companies rely on Biocair’s global experience and know-how gained from more than 35 years’ experience of being a specialist courier.

Do you need support with your pharmaceutical shipping? Biocair’s team of experts can help.

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Wherever you are located in the world, our team of experts are on hand to support your supply chain.

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