Frankfurt Cargo Services (FCS) successfully concluded the International Air Transport Association (IATA) Center of Excellence for Independent Validators (CEIV) certification process that applies to transportation of pharmaceutical products, confirming that the company officially meets the high standards.
The certification adds value for FCS in terms of the company’s own competencies as well. The IATA audit found the internal training on handling pharmaceutical products that is incorporated into the FCS training concept to be good and in line with IATA CEIV specifications.
A smooth and uninterrupted cold chain is vital to reliable pharmaceutical logistics. Many pharmaceutical products are very sensitive to even the slightest fluctuations in temperature, and some can even lose efficacy. This makes well-trained staff essential, alongside high-performance warehouses with stable refrigeration and cooling options.
With vital deliveries of large quantities of vaccine for the novel coronavirus likely to be needed in the near future, these kinds of handling options are becoming more important than ever before.
“The requirements that apply to safe storage and transportation of pharmaceutical products have been evolving steadily in recent years. Pharmaceutical handling is very demanding. It requires clear and stable processes for product safety. Earning certification according to the IATA CEIV standard confirms to us and our customers the quality of FCS’s longstanding activities in this segment,” said Stefan Kassau, Manager Processes & Pharma Handling at FCS.
“It is the basis and incentive for continuing and building on our successful work and guaranteeing our customers that their pharmaceutical consignments will be handled safely at Frankfurt Airport,” added Kassau.
“In the course of the certification process, the FCS special warehouses were equipped with a state-of-the-art new temperature monitoring system and underwent an in-depth audit. Functionality and safety for the products was confirmed by the necessary temperature mapping activities,” said Christoph Cyranek, Manager Quality Assurance & Performance Improvement at FCS.
“As part of our preparations for the logistics involving Covid-19 vaccines that is presumably coming up, this certification comes at just the right time, of course. As the first step, we already decided to expand our existing infrastructure so even more handling space can be provided for active refrigerated containers,” noted Cyranek.
FCS is now working towards meeting European Union Good Distribution Practice (GDP) standards for medical products for human use that serves to monitor the distribution chain with an eye to the quality and intactness of medicinal products. It addresses a larger segment of the economy, since GDP certification relates to the entire process of transportation from the producer through to the end customer, independent of airfreight.
