IAG Cargo’s head of pharmaceutical Jordan Kohlbeck tells Air Cargo Management about the division’s pharmaceutical expertise and making sure temperature-sensitive materials stay in perfect condition during transportation.

You’ve recently assumed the role of head of pharmaceutical but you’ve worked at IAG Cargo for three years; what other roles did you have, and what are you now responsible for?

Since joining IAG Cargo, I’ve specialised in Constant Climate and business transformation, where I have worked towards delivering and driving change within IAG Cargo’s operations and wider business.

In my role I am responsible for overseeing IAG Cargo’s temperature control pharmaceutical product and leading on the vision and strategic direction of IAG Cargo’s pharmaceutical and life sciences division.

Our pharmaceutical service is centred around Constant Climate, our state-of-the-art cold chain solution that caters specifically to the transportation of pharmaceuticals, such as vaccines, biotech products, diagnostics samples, or any other temperature sensitive pharmaceutical material. Additionally, we have a vast Constant Climate network throughout the world, including three hubs, over 100 Constant Climate stations, 21 of which are in the US. My team and I work to ensure our Constant Climate network meet our customer’s needs, allowing for new stations to be considered and opened as required.

What can you tell us about the New Premia facility that opened at London Heathrow in May?

The launch of New Premia in May was a pivotal milestone for IAG Cargo – and we’re really pleased that it is already bringing huge benefits both to our customers and our operational teams. Our commitment is to deliver a top-tier service to our customers, and the continued investment in our IT systems enhances our operational performance.

New Premia serves as IAG Cargo’s home for handling premium loose shipments, and we’re now able to handle double the amount of cargo each day. To accommodate this increase in cargo handling capacity, significant focus has been given to designing bespoke IT systems and systems integration to regulate freight movements and allocations inside the facility.

The facility has been designed to handle more cargo for customers as efficiently as possible, with 11 new landside doors, meaning even faster engagement for drivers to collect or drop off cargo. The temperature-controlled building includes a state-of-the-art Constant Climate Quality Centre (CCQC) for pharmaceuticals, with 27 dedicated cool cells and temperature facilities ensuring sensitive shipments are held in the right conditions.

Operationally, four large ‘transfer vehicles’ have been introduced which service the 20 new workstations. This process uses ground-breaking technology as the system is fully integrated with IAG Cargo’s existing Warehouse Management System – which is the first time globally that this integration has been delivered.

All of these aspects and enhancements enable IAG Cargo to provide best-in-class service to customers and be constantly evolving.

Why was Cincinnati chosen as the latest US location to be approved as a Constant Climate station?

In August, we opened a new pharmaceutical station in Cincinnati, where the new location sees increased volumes of pharmaceuticals imported in from locations in Europe, India, the UK, and Ireland, and exported to Southeast Asia and Africa. Products such as vaccines, medicinal drugs and clinical trial medications are amongst the most common to be uplifted and delivered across the world.

We chose Cincinnati as the next US station as many pharmaceutical manufacturing companies are headquartered in the Ohio Valley, and as a trusted partner IAG Cargo can provide the safe and secure transportation of life-saving drugs with the highest potency to the end-user through our Constant Climate product and advanced New Premia facility at our London hub.

The new station supports IAG Cargo’s three main hubs at London-Heathrow, Madrid-Barajas and Dublin Airport for Constant Climate, and an extensive global network of over 100 approved sites, allowing IAG Cargo to move pharmaceuticals at global scale.

What factors have led to a 45 per cent increase in the volume of pharmaceuticals transported in the first half of 2023 compared to the previous year?

In the first half of 2023, we saw a significant upsurge in the volume of pharmaceuticals being transported. The air cargo industry plays a pivotal role in moving pharmaceutical products, with a growing focus on vaccines since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. Pharmaceuticals, particularly vaccines, demand specialised transportation methods, and air cargo logistics currently constitute a staggering 95 per cent of the cold chain pharmaceutical transportation (source: europe.thermoking.com).

In recent years, India and China have emerged as key countries for the pharmaceutical industry with over half of the pharmaceutical products imported to America coming from India, China, and Mexico (source: prosperousamerica.org). The US has the highest demand for pharmaceuticals, making up 42 per cent of pharmaceutical spending in 2022 (source: statista.com).

The pharmaceutical landscape is undergoing a remarkable transformation, marked by the increasing approval of cell and gene therapies. These innovative treatments hold promise, yet they need an entirely new level of precision and speed in transportation. This is largely due to the short lifecycle of these therapies and the controlled environments essential for them to remain usable.

Ensuring a temperature-controlled, swift, and secure transportation for the pharmaceutical industry remains a crucial aspect of our services through our Constant Climate offering.

What core values guide IAG Cargo’s movement of pharmaceuticals and how do these influence long-term decisions for the business?

Our core values revolve around four key points: ‘curious minds’, ‘determined attitudes’, ‘heartfelt pride’ and ‘collaborative actions’. We’re dedicated to constantly improving our customer experience – focusing on moving goods swiftly, efficiently and safely – which is incredibly important when it comes to pharmaceuticals.

The values are very much aligned to our swift, efficient, and secure movement of pharmaceuticals. The focus on curious minds drives us to continually invest in innovative technology solutions to improve our pharmaceutical transportation services. This not only allows us to meet the unique challenges associated with the delivery of pharmaceuticals but also ensures that our long-term decisions prioritise the development and implementation of cutting-edge solutions.

As part of these decisions, we ensure that we are working collaboratively with our customers, to ensure their needs are at the front of our minds. This includes being able to offer products such as ‘Critical’, our emergency solution for urgent cargo. In 2019, we extended its operation to a 24/7 service, ensuring the availability of this vital service for life-saving medicines and pharmaceutical materials. The extension of our Critical service offering underscores our commitment to the industry, ensuring that shipments that must-fly are securely accelerated through our network to their final destination.

These core values influence long-term decisions throughout our pharmaceutical work including the recent opening of the new Constant Climate station in Cincinnati. By expanding our Constant Climate stations in the US, and in a location connected with pharmaceutical manufacturing, we are able to collaborate with partners and showcase our determined attitude to provide best-in-class services.

This feature was first published in Air Cargo Management – November/December 2023. To read the magazine in full, click here.