Airline passenger numbers may have been slow to rise after the Covid-19 pandemic, but air cargo’s rebound was much quicker. Preparation and planning are therefore critical for the efficient transport of medicines via air freight, according to The International Air Transport Association (IATA)’s Korea manager Baek-Jae Kim.
Creating robust cold supply chains was a key topic of discussion at the 2024 Outsourcing in Clinical Trials and Clinical Trial Supply East Asia in Seoul, South Korea from 3 to 4 December.
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The pharmaceutical industry’s reliance on air freight cannot be overstated, with it moving over $1trn’s worth of cargo each year, according to IATA. Navigating temperature-controlled logistics is a main component of cold supply chains and a topic upon which the conversational spotlight has not often shone.
The importance was highlighted this year during the shipment of vaccines to Africa to contain the mpox outbreak. Bavarian Nordic’s vaccine, the only US Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved shot for the disease, has stringent cold storage requirements.
IATA is responsible for the Temperature Cargo Regulations (TCR) – a set of guidelines shippers and airlines follow to transit temperature-sensitive products, a category of which medical products such as Bavarian Nordic’s vaccine often belong.
“TCR is key for transporting medicine to clinical trials. Preparation is key to preventing problems during transit. This includes the vendor being audited and compliance checked,” said Kim at a panel discussion during the first day of the conference.
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By GlobalDataTCR is updated by IATA’s Healthcare Cargo Working Group each year, with 2025 changes that include marking and labelling additions. Kim said that the regulations help the safe and efficient transportation of clinical trial shipments, adding that responsibilities fall to both the shipper and operator, the latter most often being an airline.
Indeed, Kim highlighted the need for a joint effort between the parties, saying they “have a responsibility to collaborate so the product can arrive safely without any issues”.
The fragility of cold supply chains in the face of geopolitical fluctuations was highlighted by Kangpyo Lee, vice president of cold chain container and transport company HanulTL.
Lee alluded to the no-fly zone over parts of Ukraine as part of the country’s ongoing war with Russia, adding that medicinal products had to be flown to nearby countries instead. This was part of the reason why clinical trials in the region were severely disrupted. Lee explained that having “contingency plans” in place for even the most unlikely scenarios is a necessity for robust supply chains.
