The Hindu : New Delhi News : New ‘cold chain’ facility for Delhi airport

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Friday, Mar 13, 2009
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New ‘cold chain’ facility for Delhi airport

Bindu Shajan Perappadan

Organisation of Pharmaceutical Producers ties up with DIAL

‘Drugs are complex entities and many of them are temperature-sensitive in nature’
Mumbai airport has already installed four new cold rooms for pharmaceuticals

NEW DELHI: With the objective of maintaining precise and continuous temperature conditions in transit in order to retain potency and resultant efficacy of life-saving drugs and vaccines, the Organisation of Pharmaceutical Producers of India (OPPI) has tied up with Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL) to overhaul and add to the existing cold chain facility in the Capital.

Under the project, DIAL has assured that the new airport cargo terminal — expected to be commissioned later this year — will have around 4,000 square metres of additional cold room capacity compared with the present cold room capacity of 400 square metres available in Delhi.

“Drugs are complex entities and many of them are temperature-sensitive in nature. Life-saving drugs and products including vaccines are very sensitive to proper cold chain and any slippage can lead to immediate denaturing or deterioration in the quality of the product. There is a major shift taking place in the product portfolio of leading pharmaceutical companies and many of them are bringing to the market products developed through advanced technology like vaccines which requires maintenance of a proper cold chain right from the manufacturer’s premises till it reaches the patient,” said OPPI Director-General Tapan Ray.

“To take the initiative to improve the cold chain management at Mumbai and Delhi airports, OPPI took up this cause two years ago with major stakeholders, particularly the Mumbai International Airport Private Limited and DIAL, where 80-90 per cent of the export and import trade of pharmaceuticals takes place,” he added.

The Mumbai International Airport Private Ltd. has already installed four new cold rooms for pharmaceuticals and has trained handling staff to ensure adherence to standard operating procedures.

Asking the Government to ensure that there are dedicated cold rooms for pharmaceuticals to accommodate the import and export cargo, OPPI has also asked for proper shelter for unloaded goods/goods awaiting loading, immediate transfer of goods to cold room/aircraft for incoming and outgoing goods respectively and use refrigerated vans to transfer stock.

Problems

“The Government on its part should ensure proper cold room facilities at airports. It is unfortunate that the pharmaceutical industry is facing such problems despite giving substantial revenue to the Government in exports and imports of goods,” added Mr. Ray.

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