As drug manufacturers increase their global reach, fast and safe distribution of temperature-sensitive drugs is a key issue. Christopher Dehio, Lufthansa Cargo, assesses the pharmaceutical airfreight market and its challenges.
When we in the airfreight business talk about market sizes for a particular product, we are mostly interested in the weight or volume that needs to be transported. However, most of the statistical data available to describe the pharmaceutical market is in terms of value produced or values sold. Both show impressive growth figures and you could be led to believe that similar growth in transportation requirements must therefore also apply. Unfortunately it is not quite so simple.
While values produced or values sold give a solid indication of how healthy the ‘health market’ really is, neither has real significance in determining market sizes for the global, cool-chain air logistic industry and would lead to incorrect conclusions. For instance, the introduction of a more stable generic may lead to higher sales volumes but could also make cold chain transportation altogether unnecessary.
The significance of weight – or volume – for the air freight industry can be best shown with the example of India: when we look at value exported, India would account for only 2% of the total value exported worldwide. However, looking at the weight exported, India is – after the European Union – the second largest exporter of pharmaceuticals. In comparison, Canada ranks 4th by value but only 30th by exported weight.
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