At short notice: Using Sea-Air for the safe delivery of temperature-sensitive medicines

Most medicines are highly sensitive to external environmental factors like heat, moisture, and even light. Diabetes medicines, for example, are temperature-sensitive and require strict control during storage and transportation to guarantee insulin efficacy. It is essential to handle them with safety and care, from their collection to the final distribution. Our customer has been manufacturing these diabetes medicines in Turkey and sending them to patients in Australia since a long time. 

Recently, however, they encountered a huge challenge – flights in Sydney did not have the capacity to transport temperature-sensitive shipments. Despite this disruption to their supply chain, they knew that a delay in delivery was not an option - it impacted patients who were relying on these medicines. 

Contingency plan on

Since time was running out, the pharma experts at Kuehne+Nagel swiftly switched to their contingency plan and used Sea-Air so that the medicines reach Australia within the deadline. Erman Ersoy, National Key Account Manager at Kuehne+Nagel, elaborates, “These medicines have a specific expiration date and need to reach patients as quickly as possible. We understood the urgency of the situation and proposed Sea-Air as an alternative solution to support our customers without losing efficiency.’’ 

To ensure timely delivery, the Sea-Air team rerouted the shipments to Singapore by air, instead of taking the usual route that goes directly to Sydney. Seamless coordination between the different teams and locations was crucial due to the short notice. We picked up the shipment from a customer facility in Istanbul, loaded it safely onto the aircraft, and transported it to Singapore - all of it while maintaining the dedicated 15 to 25 degrees Celsius temperature throughout the journey.

Once the shipment arrived at the Singapore Airport, we stored it at a pharma-certified, temperature-controlled warehouse before the last leg of the journey. After the vessel carrying the medicines departed for Australia, we collaborated with our customer to ensure that the customs clearance procedure is smooth upon arrival at the destination.

Smart combination

Due to the solution-oriented attitude and partnership between everyone involved in the project, the shipment reached Sydney on time. A smart combination of sea and air logistics helped our customers deliver the medicines safely, while minimising their CO2 emissions and costs. 

It’s been three years since our customer started working with us. They believe in our solutions and know that they can trust us – which is why they were open to trying something different during a challenging period. With our success in this operation, they have decided to use our Sea-Air solution for more lanes across the world - such as Colombia, Mexico and Brazil. Through transparent communication and team work, this partnership will continue to evolve in new and exciting ways in the future.