Panalpina Bogotá gains GDP certification
28 / 08 / 2018
Panalpina Bogotá has been certified to the World Health Organization’s Good Distribution Practice (GDP) health care standard.
GDP is an international standard for the proper distribution of medicinal products for human use. Panalpina’s business unit in Bogotá, Colombia, is the global supply chain services giant’s 31st location around the world to gain this certification.
The Bogotá office successfully completed a two-day audit conducted by inspection, verification, testing and certification company SGS in order to gain the GDP certificate of approval.
“We are proud about this achievement, and this is great news for our healthcare customers who demand strict quality and temperature control measures in the supply chain to ensure the safety and integrity of their products,” declared Angelo Dotto, Panalpina’s managing director for Colombia.
Colombia represents Latin America’s fourth-largest pharmaceutical market, only beaten by Brazil, Mexico and Panama, and – notes a Panalpina statement –most of the major international pharmaceutical companies have an operation there.
The forwarder assesses that 82% of Colombia’s pharmaceutical imports and 47% of its pharmaceutical exports pass through the Bogotá region.
Panalpina has offices in Bogotá (its head office in the country), Medellín, Cali, Cartagena, Barranquilla and Pereira, as well as an agent office in Buenaventura and, with regards to the pharmaceutical industry in the country: “We see great growth potential in this business area, considering that the growth rate of this industry in Colombia is five percent per year,” Dotto noted.
Gaining accreditation to handle highly sensitive pharma shipments has become something of a priority for many logistics services providers – airlines, handlers and other operators, as well as freight forwarders.
Only last week, for example, German cargo ground handler LUG confirmed that it had received IATA’s CEIV Pharma certification for its recently upgraded Health Care Center (HCC) in Frankfurt airport’s CargoCity South.
