Coming soon: a global air cargo standard for pharma

MEDICAL authorities are devising a GDP-style global standard regulation covering the air transportation of pharmaceuticals and healthcare products.
It will shake up the air cargo industry and weed out the bad operators.
All 44 members of the Pharmaceutical Inspection Co-operation Scheme (PIC/S) are working on draft documentation inspired by the game-changing new EU Good Distribution Practice [GDP] certificate introduced in September.
Their draft guide has already been reviewed by a team of medical experts – and a consultation process, to ensure it is acceptable to non-EU countries, is due to take place later this year, a spokesperson for the UK medicine licensing authority MHRA, confirms.
Riekert Bruinink, of the Dutch Healthcare Inspectorate, who is also chairman of the PIC/S GDP working group, says: “A PIC/S guideline will be a step towards a worldwide guideline but it will not be easy to organise, because some countries have their own policies.”
The original guidlines were set in 1994. “A lot more medicines are travelling the world these days, so the risks are much higher than 20 years ago. The quality of medicines could be affected during transportation and storage,” he adds.
Read Thelma Etim’s full news analysis in the next edition of Air Cargo News  24 March 2014  – Issue 773