Worldwide Flight Services’ (WFS) dedicated Pharma Centre at Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport has been awarded Good Distribution Practice (GDP) certification.
At the start of 2020, the 2,400 sq m centre, part of a multi-million Euro investment by WFS in global pharmaceutical handling facilities, also achieved IATA CEIV Pharma certification.
The GDP audit and certification process by independent auditing specialists TÜV "confirmed the facility’s temperature management capabilities and assessed and approved WFS’ pharma policy, including its internal auditing procedures, risk assessment and corrective/preventive measures, and critical supplier list".
Yann Favre, newly-appointed manager pharma at the WFS Centre in Paris, said: “Gaining certifications for both IATA CEIV and GDP for our Pharma Centre in Paris means we have achieved the highest respective global standards recognised by the air cargo and pharmaceutical industries.”
WFS’ Paris facility also offers temperature-control trucks, trailer and dollies to ensure the efficacy of pharma cargoes from aircraft to warehouse and vice versa.
The Centre handles over 8,000 tonnes of temperature-controlled shipments a year for nearly 40 airline customers.
WFS expects the Center to play an important role in the handling and distribution of Covid-19 vaccines for the population of France once these shipments begin.
The facility is located at the airport’s cargo area, has landside and airside access, boasts three temperature controlled rooms each offering loose cargo storage at a range of temperatures, two storage areas with a controlled temperate of 2-25 degrees Celsius, digital systems to improve visibility, barcode scanning tech, a temperature monitoring station, temperature controlled dollies and trailers and a cloud-based incident platform.
Last month, WFS announced the creation of a special Project Coldstream task force to safely and securely coordinate and manage its global response for the 16 billion doses of Covid vaccines expected to be transported by air cargo services.
