Nippon Express Co., Ltd. has established a new temperature-controlled facility – NEX-PHARMA Logistics Hub Kansai Airport – enabling strict temperature control of international air cargo, and this facility will open for business.
Strict compliance with quality standards such as GDP (Good Distribution Practice) has been required for pharmaceutical products worldwide in recent years, and customers have been demanding ever-higher levels of quality for temperature control during transport and storage.
The newly opened NEX-PHARMA Logistics Hub Kansai Airport will focus on handling cargo for the pharmaceutical industry, aiming all the while to comply with the Japanese version of GDP guidelines issued by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare in December 2018.
Nippon Express has also joined the KIX Pharma Community sponsored by Kansai Airports Co., Ltd., to obtain the “CEIV Pharma (*1)” pharmaceutical transport quality certification advocated by IATA. Upon obtaining this certification, Nippon Express will become the first air cargo forwarder in Japan to operate in-house a GDP-certified facility on airport premises, enabling it to provide safe and high-quality temperature-controlled transport services at Kansai International Airport, the gateway to western Japan.
[Features of this facility]
Temperature control
The facility’s constant-temperature areas for pharmaceutical products offer storage in the 15℃ to 25℃ (constant-temperature) and 2℃ to 8℃ (refrigerated) ranges.
Areas have also been established for storing general goods at 5℃ (refrigerated storage) and -20℃ (frozen storage).
Validation (*2) results are available from a continuous temperature monitoring system.
This system issues warnings of any deviations from set temperature conditions to provide immediate recognition of potential problems.
Quality assurance
Dock shelter installed
Emergency backup power supply installed (will go into operation at the end of August 2021)
Power can be supplied to temperature-controlled containers in the constant-temperature storage area.
The facility is dust-proof and insect-proof and features anti-static interior walls.
Enhanced security
A surveillance camera system has been installed in the facility.
Access to all rooms is managed using IC tags.
CEIV Pharma (The Center of Excellence for Independent Validators in Pharmaceutical Logistics): a quality certification program established by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) to cover the air transport of pharmaceutical products that sets out high standards encompassing the differing Good Distribution Practice (GDP) guidelines of countries around the world for the storage and transport of pharmaceuticals.
Validation: scientific verification of the suitability of inspection/analysis methods, their work processes, etc.
Nippon Express will be bolstering its efforts on behalf of the pharmaceuticals industry, positioned as a priority industry in its current business plan, and further enhancing its safe and secure pharmaceutical supply network services to meet increasingly sophisticated and diverse pharmaceutical logistics needs.