With one of the Top 10 Indian pharmaceutical companies setting up Asia’s largest integrated insulins manufacturing facility in Johor, Malaysia, Hellmann was tasked to establish a reliable airfreight solution for temperature-controlled shipments from Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KUL). The outcome was a most successful service solution for sensitive healthcare shipments.

As the commodity Insugen requires a stringent temperature control of 2-8°C throughout the entire transportation chain, an active packaging solution of Envirotainer was selected. Envirotainer is a leading industry pioneer of active temperature-controlled containers which provides some of the most advanced RKN & RAP containers and has their regional service station in Singapore. “In partnership with Envirotainer the initial route risk assessment was conducted and decided to use the dry ice container type, RAP t2 which can hold four US pallets,” says Sachin Anand, Managing Director Malaysia & Singapore.

In preparation for these shipments, the airfreight team from Hellmann Malaysia was trained by Envirotainer on the pre-conditioning and handling of the RAPt2 units in Singapore in December 2019. As KUL airport has limited exposure to exporting temperature-controlled pharmaceuticals using active packaging containers, the engagement and alignment of the terminal operator MASkargo was required. In partnership with Envirotainer, the on-site visit of the terminal and its existing infrastructures such as security scanning machines, material handling equipment, and temperature-controlled rooms took place in January 2020. The export process mapping and SOP including the physical movement of the shipment as well as the communication matrix between all stakeholders were then prepared in a meeting between the customer, terminal, airline, Envirotainer, and Hellmann.

Becoming Cold Chain Experts

Due to the COVID-19 outbreak with reduced capacity and flights, the initial start date of the shipments was postponed from March to June 2020. During this period, our airfreight team in Malaysia continued the training and received certificates for online courses in the Envirotainer Academy ‘Become a Cold Chain Expert’. Several steps of the pre-conditioning process of the container such as the calculation and handling of dry ice, placement of batteries, and monitoring of cooling were practiced.

Hellmann station in Kuala Lumpur has recently joined the GDP-compliant Hellmann Healthcare Logistics network which reaches more than 80% of global healthcare markets. SouPing Chee, Head of Airfreight at Hellmann APAC points out, “Our airline partner Malaysia Airlines (MH) closely collaborated with Envirotainer to ensure the repositioning of the empty RAP t2 to KUL as well as return to the involved service station. They monitored the flight schedules and could provide a timely update so that the first shipment could be arranged in the first week of June 2020.”

“Open communication and transparency between the different parties along the supply chain were instrumental to make this new service solution for Hellmann Healthcare successful.”

One day before the actual shipment, Envirotainer provided a refresher training of handling their t-type containers. This included the inspection and start-up – preconditioning, dry ice loading as well as features of the control unit operations and cargo loading. With clear guidance on all possible alerts and alarms as well as reasons and required actions, the Hellmann team was well prepared – and could arrange the four pallets of Insugen in one RAP t2 from Johor, Malaysia ex KUL to Bangalore, India.

“Open communication and transparency between the different parties along the supply chain were instrumental to make this new service solution for Hellmann Healthcare successful. Together Everyone Achieves More,” emphasizes Christopher Schwarz, Director of Healthcare Solutions Hellmann APAC.

For more information, please contact Christopher.Schwarz@hellmann.com.