DHL Global Forwarding’s airfreight station in Shanghai has been IATA CEIV Pharma certified, the first freight forwarder to receive certification in Asia.

The air and ocean freight specialist within Deutsche Post DHL Group started certifying global stations to International Air Transport Association Center of Excellence for Independent Validators in Pharmaceutical Logistics (IATA CEIV) in the third quarter of 2016 and the DHL Air Thermonet station received the quality label following independent audits by third parties and training courses for employees.

DHL global head of temperature management solutions and chief executive officer (CEO) of LifeConEx at DHL Global Forwarding, David Bang says: “Over many years, DHL has been actively involved with IATA’s continuous efforts to adequately answer to the regulatory demands of the pharmaceutical industry. This standardised approach in the air freight industry means productivity, accuracy, and reliability. All of those lead to product integrity and patient safety.”

DHL Global Forwarding Greater China CEO, Steve Huang says: “The life sciences and healthcare industry increasingly requires more regulatory control over the years including the transportation and storage of highly-sensitive pharmaceutical goods.”

“Through the IATA CEIV Pharma Certification, DHL further shows its commitment to service quality when it comes to the delivery of these vital and temperature sensitive products.”

The Shanghai location has 1,405 square metres available in the air import warehouse and 245 square metres in the air export warehouse.