Swiss’ daily Zurich-Washington service is good news for Indian pharma: Andres L Perez

December 18, 2019: Senior director and head of business development, Swiss World Cargo, Andres L Perez was talking in an event for the Mumbai pharma forwarders at the newly opened Pharma Excellence Centre at Cargo Service Center Export Cold Zone, Mumbai Airport last week.

“Only 20 percent of the total cargo that we carry is served to Zurich or Switzerland and for the rest 80 percent, our hub in Zurich Airport is a point from where it is flown to other parts of the world including the United States. Mumbai is an important cargo hub for Swiss World Cargo, as it has become the pharmacy of the world and the pharma exports continued to increase,” said Andres.

“With all the statistics coming in favour, we foresee a future with tremendous pharma exports from Mumbai and increased shipments to the United States in particular. The Airbus A330-300 flying between Zurich and Washington DC from March 29, 2019, will be good news from Indian pharma industry as Swiss will be offering more belly space to the US in particular,” he added.

Talking about new personalized medicines he said, “When a radioactive material to be used in manufacturing a medicine is transported from Italy to New York for a patient in the US, there is a need of timely movement, real-time data shared, kept under the right temperature and provide security because it is more about emotion and trust attached to it.”

The event also witnessed temperature-controlled ULD manufactures Envirotainer, C Safe and Va-Q-tec demonstrating their products along with the soft launch of the expanded cold store terminal whose capacity to store built-up units has been augmented by 400 percent at Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport, besides offering an increased handling capacity and space – specifically for temperature-sensitive products.

Shankar Iyer, Director of Cargo Africa, Middle East & India, Swiss World Cargo spoke about the journey of SWC pharma from 2011 and how SWC Mumbai now has a 40 percent share of pharma on every flight from Mumbai.