Kuehne + Nagel to reinvigorate pharma firm’s global logistics

Kuehne + Nagel (K+N) is to become the air, sea and land logistics partner of pharmaceutical research company Grünenthal and will help the German group reorganise its worldwide transportation network.
Grünenthal has production sites in Europe and Latin America and is represented in 32 countries through subsidiaries, while its products are available in 155 countries. It was looking for a logistics partner that could operate on a global scale and meet its demands for reliability and traceability.
KN PharmaChain, the Switzerland-headquartered forwarder’s multi-modal temperature-controlled door-to-door logistics solution, will be a core element of the network because it allows accurate traceability of the deliveries and "intensive, proactive risk management".
K+N recently became the first logistics provider worldwide to receive the IATA CEIV Pharma certification for the KN PharmaChain network covering 86 locations.
Grünenthal’s senior vice president global supply chain, Victor Barbosa, explained that the new agreement would allow the pharma company “to combine all our global forwarding services with the K+N Group. This centralisation and our partner’s expertise in the pharmaceutical industry will help us to make our processes more efficient and enhance our competitiveness."
K+N Germany managing director Hansjörg Rodi stated: “Our aim is to reshape the entire network for logistics services together with the customer. To achieve this, we will utilise our expertise in providing services for the pharmaceutical and healthcare industry, which is of strategic importance for K+N.”