A large number of pharmaceutical manufacturing is based in Belgium and Brussels Airport in particular is located in the middle of one of the European pharma clusters. For Brussels Airport was clear that aligning and standardizing the pharma handling processes between supply chain partners was the only effective way to guarantee the correct handling of pharmaceutical cargo in an end-to-end integrated cool chain.

Regulations are increasing around the world. Processes and specialized equipment are becoming more complex. Specific training is required to ensure staff handling the products has good pharma awareness; and multiple audits are imposed by companies and regulators. Therefore, all the service providers active at the airport – airlines, handling agents, forwarders, trucking companies – must adopt a more aligned model. This means working collectively with all business partners and service providers to craft supply chains for optimal end-to-end visibility and reliability.

Confirmation as Preferred Pharma Gateway

In order to achieve this Brussels Airport cargo community has collectively focused on a set of common priorities over the past years, confirming it as a preferred pharma gateway.

• Investing in specialized and dedicated pharma infrastructure
• Training staff in order to lock in pharma expertise and create awareness on every level in the organization
• Managing the complexity and number of handovers from the moment the goods are transported to the airport, to the point at which they are handed over to the customer at the destination
• Working collaboratively with the International Air Transport Association (IATA) in developing and implementing an air cargo handling standard: the Center of Excellence for Independent Validators in Pharmaceutical Handling program, or “CEIV Pharma”. In this pilot project 19 companies based in the cargo zone of the airport participated to certify the airport cargo community, covering the entire cold chain throughout the airport.

More recently the Brucargo community developed the Airside Pharma Transporter, an innovative transport solution to avoid extreme temperatures during the airside transport of temperature sensitive pharma shipments. This conditioned trailer keeps pharmaceutical shipments within the correct temperature limits during transportation between warehouses and aircraft at an affordable cost.

The Brussels Airport cargo community would not have been able to position itself as a preferred pharma gateway without the relentless support and participation of all strong partners. It is a remarkable success story of community collaboration.