PHARMAFREIGHT

Pharmafreight is pleased to announce it now holds an MHRA Wholesale Dealer's Authorisation, allowing it to store and transport medicines through its London Heathrow site. Following a successful application and subsequent audit from the UK's health regulator, the MHRA (Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency), Pharmafreight is now one of only a handful of UK freight companies that holds a Wholesale Dealer's Authorisation (WDA), allowing it to store medicinal and related products at its temperature-controlled facility in Ashford, Middlesex, just outside London Heathrow Airport. The WDA also confirms Pharmafreight complies with the new Good Distribution Practice (GDP) Guidelines, designed to ensure that patient safety is upmost in a company's mind, and that the efficacy of a drug is not affected whilst in a licence holders' care. Pharmafreight started working in the pharmaceutical forwarding industry back in the 1990's through its parent company, Mach II Shipping. At that time it was relatively unheard of for a freight forwarder to understand and work to the regulations that pharmaceutical companies had to abide by. Having identified a gap in the market for a specialist freight forwarder dealing only in pharmaceuticals, the Pharmafreight division and brand was established, recruiting like-minded overseas freight companies into its own network, all designed to work to GDP. During the European Commission's consultation period last year on the new GDP Guidelines, it was initially suggested that any company in the supply chain holding product for more than 24 hours would need to have a WDA, which would have meant that any airline, transport or warehouse company could potentially need a licence. However this was eventually watered down so that a licence holder must only "minimise" the amount of time that its product is in an unlicensed facility. Despite this Pharmafreight decided that it still wanted to demonstrate to the pharmaceutical industry its aim to be associated with quality in the supply chain, and applied for a WDA licence anyway. Its successful application means that Pharmafreight can now store medicines at its facility for longer than a day, in accordance with GDP, and in the right temperature and quality conditions. Andy Hughes, Commercial Director at Pharmafreight, said: "We are very pleased to be only one of a handful of independent freight forwarding companies that holds a Wholesale Dealer's Authorisation in the UK. Pharma companies using our services can take some comfort that we are working to exactly the same legal requirements they are, fully compliant in GDP. And we apply these standards whether we are storing a product on a customer's behalf, or indeed transporting a shipment halfway across the world."