What is pharmaceutical warehousing?
The challenges of pharmaceutical warehousing
Pharmaceutical warehousing comes with its own set of significant challenges. These are vital for keeping medical products safe and maintaining their quality. The challenges include:
- Strict compliance — Pharmaceutical warehouses must adhere to stringent regulatory requirements, including good distribution practice (GDP) and good manufacturing practice (GMP) standards. This demands thorough documentation and quality control processes.
- Temperature control — Maintaining specific temperature ranges is vital for preserving the efficacy and safety of pharmaceuticals, posing a challenge due to the sensitivity of many medical products to temperature variations.
- Logistical challenges — Managing inventory, handling complex supply chains, and ensuring timely deliveries to many destinations worldwide create logistical complexities.
- Security and safety — Pharmaceutical warehouses require robust security measures to ensure valuable and sensitive products are protected against theft, contamination, or mishandling.
It is essential to streamline warehouse operations to ensure swift distribution, reducing lead times and potential delays in delivering critical medications to patients. In addition, having a team with specialized knowledge in temperature-controlled logistics and compliance is crucial in reducing risk and ensuring the safe storage and distribution of pharmaceuticals. Overall, well-organized and maintained warehouses for pharmaceutical products guarantee the reliability and integrity of stored medical products.
World Courier pharmaceutical warehousing
Protecting your investment
Trust beyond transport
Optimizing your supply chain
No other specialty logistics company in the world can match our experienced personnel, network of global offices and in-market expertise that ensure the optimal handling, transport and delivery of your products. We exceed expectations by offering premium services as standard practices, including redundant checking of each received shipment, redundant security mechanisms in preparing and shipping procedure and same-day or next-day deliver to all intra-country locations.
Our pharma warehouse infrastructure is unmatched and built for purpose:
- Separate storage lockers for every protocol, released drugs, quarantined drugs, returned and recalled drugs
- Open pallet storage (select locations)
- Validated storage for: Controlled ambient (+15°C
to +25°C), Refrigerated (+2°C to +8°C), Frozen (-20°C) on demand, Deep frozen
(-70°C) on demand, Liquid nitrogen (-196°C) on demand
Real-time inventory visibility
Remote access is available anywhere in the world for real-time visibility into stocks per protocol, per depot, distribution to sites — all at your fingertips.
CTM-STAR is CFR 21 part 11 compliant, as part of our commitment to high quality management standards.
Explore our virtual depot
Take a virtual tour of our depot to see how your product is protected from inception to commercialization. Click below to find out more.
Supporting your clinical trial
We have a global network and a single point of contact for onboarding new studies and setting up work instructions. There is a full chain of custody through:
- Bulk shipments
- Pharmaceutical warehouse storage
- Depot-to-site distribution with bundled solutions (including packaging)
We offer flexibility in our operations including labeling and just-in-time customization, and comparator and ancillary sourcing in select countries.
Our depots offer a range of additional support services for clinical trials. We have established guidelines for the reception, storage, distribution, and destruction of Biosafety Level (BSL) 1 and 2 organisms.
Our archiving service supports thousands of trials and billions of data pieces, allowing trial administrators long-term access to secure records. We offer a variety of labeling services to satisfy local regulatory requirements. Finally, our destruction services follow local regulations in each country and provide documentation to be archived with details of what has been destroyed.
Logistics solutions for specialty commercial products
Our depot network supports your specialty product commercialization in emerging markets. We create a seamless platform from clinical to commercial across the globe.
By understanding your commercialization goals we strive to maximize return on investment. This is through mitigating unexpected costs through the highest quality in the market.
Our pharmaceutical warehousing offering is up to any challenge. From serialization to rigorous temperature storage conditions including liquid nitrogen solutions, we can help. Through a fully standardized model, you can reduce vendor management costs. We then take care of onboarding locations for each project.
You get the same world-class solution in any location thanks to our truly global standard procedures.
Our supply chain expertise achieves an agile distribution model that ensures your product is delivered in full compliance with local regulations. Access integrated solutions from across Cencora, including commercialization solutions in the U.S. and Canada.
Why World Courier?
Global LN2 charging capability
World Courier is dedicated to attention to detail in medical logistics, from pharmaceutical storage to delivery to patients. We have specialized expertise in navigating the intricacies of transporting sensitive medical cargo.
This underscores our commitment to ensuring adherence to pharmaceutical warehousing requirements and the secure, timely delivery of products within specific temperature ranges. Our unique strength lies in our global network, enabling seamless collaboration with diverse organizations worldwide.
Our ability to work with various entities reflects a versatile approach that meets the distinct logistical needs of different regions, making us a trusted partner for complex international operations in the healthcare sector.
Our pharmaceutical delivery credentials
Other international guidelines we adhere to:
- GDP compliant
- National and State Board of Pharmacy licensed (where applicable)
- WHO good Distribution practices for pharmaceutical products, TRS No. 957 Annex 5
- EU Guidelines on good distribution practice of medicinal products for human use (2013/C 343/01)
- USP <1079> Good Storage and Shipping Practices for Drug Products, US Pharmacopeia
- Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) 21 Part 11 compliant
Pharmaceutical warehousing insights
How to place a medical delivery with World Courier
At World Courier, we've simplified the shipping process to provide you with a seamless and efficient experience. Our user-friendly system is designed for your convenience, making it easier than ever to manage your orders.
From the initial order placement to tracking your shipments, every step is designed with you in mind. With our easy-to-download forms and direct email communication, you're always in control of your shipping needs. Plus, our customer portal provides a comprehensive platform where you can manage addresses, set alerts, upload documents and more.
