DHL Global Forwarding has expanded its healthcare cold chain network with six dedicated air freight corridors connecting Europe and North America with pharmaceutical markets in Asia.
The new routes connect Liège with Shanghai, Brussels with Shanghai and Singapore, and Cincinnati with Singapore, Tokyo Narita and Seoul Incheon.
Together, they strengthen connectivity between major pharmaceutical manufacturing, research and distribution hubs through DHL’s growing temperature-controlled healthcare logistics network.
According to DHL, the expansion is intended to provide pharmaceutical customers with greater routing flexibility and access to temperature-controlled capacity for transporting medicines, vaccines, biologics and clinical trial materials.
The majority of flights operating on DHL’s own aircraft, reducing the number of handovers between operators and giving the company greater control over temperature-sensitive shipments. DHL said it uses Boeing 777 freighters with three compartments offering different temperature settings. The network also uses thermal blankets and validated handling procedures to minimise exposure to temperatures outside the required range during transfers.
Henk Venema, global head of air freight at DHL Global Forwarding, said: “These new corridors further expand our Cold Chain Network into strategically important healthcare markets across Asia. They respond to customer demand for reliable connectivity between major healthcare markets while giving us greater control over critical quality parameters throughout the transportation process.”
The expansion follows the introduction of a Brussels-Cincinnati corridor earlier this year. It also builds on DHL’s investment in healthcare logistics infrastructure in Singapore, where a new cold chain hub is planned at Changi Nexus One, within Changi Airport’s Free Trade Zone.
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