Nippon Express Co., Ltd. (Mitsuru Saito, President) will participate in a community hosted by Narita International Airport Corporation (Akihiko Tamura, President), and aim to acquire "CEIV Pharma" pharmaceutical transport quality certification, which is advocated by IATA.
In the pharmaceutical industry, meeting "good distribution practice (GDP)" standards for the appropriate transport of pharmaceuticals has been made mandatory by law in the EU, and in Japan, a Japanese version of the GDP guidelines was issued on December 28, 2018, and strict management of operations ranging from procuring raw materials and materials to supplying final consumers is now required at the global level.
In the Nippon Express Group Business Plan 2023 ～Dynamic Growth～, which Nippon Express started this fiscal year, the pharmaceutical industry is positioned as a key industry, and thus, in addition to managing quality based on GDP, the company will sequentially start building warehouses in four key locations in Japan (East Japan, West Japan, Kyushu, and Toyama). The aim of this will be to construct a pharmaceutical supply network that will realize the overall optimization of pharmaceutical logistics. Such network construction will include ensuring the ongoing supply of pharmaceuticals, addressing business continuity plan (BCP) and the shortage of drivers.
Based on the acquisition of the certification, which incorporates GDP standards around the world, at Narita Airport, which accounts for about half of the trade amount of pharmaceuticals in Japan, Nippon Express will begin offering pharmaceutical transport services that are even safer and higher quality than before, at the global level.
[Upcoming schedule]
September 2019: Establishment of Narita Airport community
October 2019 to first half of FY2020: Participation in training lectures, and audit and certification inspections
Second half of FY2020: Acquisition of certification (planned)
CEIV Pharma (The Center of Excellence for Independent Validators in Pharmaceutical Logistics): This is a quality-certification system related to the air transport of pharmaceuticals that was formulated by the International Air Transport Association (IATA), and it sets high standards in various countries' different storage and transport standards for pharmaceuticals (GDP).
