UPS announces healthcare facility expansions and receives compliance certification from EU

Atlanta-based transportation and logistics titan UPS said this week that it is making further inroads to its healthcare-dedicated warehouse and distribution network, in the form of the addition of 1.3 million square-feet (MSF) of United States-based distribution space, as well as receiving the European Union’s Good Distribution Practice (GDP) compliance certification for France- and Germany-based healthcare operations.

With an additional 1.3 MSF in the fold, UPS said the total tally for U.S. healthcare warehouse and distribution space will be 4 million MSF by 2020. Included in this space are a new 450,00 square-foot facility in close proximity to the healthcare campus by the UPS Worldport air hub in Louisville, Ky.  and a new 315,000 square-foot Harrisburg, Penn.-based center that is located near UPS’s local transportation hub, which it said can reach key Northeast markets in one day. UPS added that the Harrisburg center is close to the company’s Swedesboro, N.J. healthcare facility, which is the first facility in the UPS network to offer medical device services, including autoclave capabilities, decontamination and replenishment of surgical gifts, and instrument inspection, among others. 

“UPS offers top-notch healthcare supply chain services that can meet specialized customer needs,” said Darren Cockrel, UPS president of global logistics, in a statement. “By increasing warehouse and distribution space and optimizing multi-client facilities, our customers have greater opportunity to reduce supply chain costs, and get their shipments to the right places globally at the right time and in full regulatory compliance.”

A UPS spokesman told LM that the expansion of the company’s warehouse and distribution space is a direct result of the tremendous growth in outsourced pharmaceutical and medical device storage and fulfillment needs, and is also in response to logistical challenges and trends including home health and direct-to-patient services. 

“Medical advancements and aggressive go-to-market strategies are causing UPS to innovate, invest and deliver more patient-centered logistics, which includes warehousing,” he said. “When you consider the considerable rise in neighborhood clinics, use of biologics, personalized therapies and wearables to monitor and manage chronic diseases, then having scalable warehouse and distribution space in key markets closer to providers and patients is a critical factor for inventory management, and getting products where they need to be in a short amount of time.”

As for the benefits these facility expansion efforts bring to UPS’s healthcare shipper customers, the spokesman pointed explained that these benefits include greater customer flexibility in strategizing inventory location versus patient demand location.

“It will ultimately provide faster and more efficient delivery of care since locations are near major UPS transportation hubs,” he said. “Key facility features include climate controls and validated coolers and freezers for customer products requiring strict temperature environments. Our healthcare warehouse network is built on integrated solutions across air freight, distribution, small package and ground freight with the ability to access patient populations in markets around the world. Other value-added services include customs brokerage, kitting, repackaging, packaging optimization, returns management and more.”

When asked what these facility expansions offer, or provide, that was previously not available for UPS’s healthcare shipper customers, the spokesman said that these facilities will offer the full suite of UPS warehousing and distribution capabilities offered at other buildings, but, as they are new, will also benefit from UPS’s most up-to-date technologies.

“For instance, our Healthcare and Life Science customers rely on best-in-class UPS quality management systems for storage, inventory management and distribution of healthcare products,” he said. “The UPS quality management system (QMS) has been further enhanced to reflect systems that exist today at many pharmaceutical companies. The QMS features a cloud-based electronic document management system, global standard operating procedures (SOPs), best-in-class validation processes and global reporting tools.”

EU GDP Certification: UPS noted that the European Union’s stringent healthcare-product distribution guidelines are set by the European Medicines Agency, describing the conditions that a wholesale distributor must meet to ensure the quality and integrity of medicines throughout the supply chain. And it added that this GDP certification validates the France and Germany networks as following proper standards for shipping pharmaceuticals, diagnostic products (including reagents), and stable blood products.

“This additional certification in Germany and France confirms our practices meet strict healthcare product distribution guidelines set forth by the EU GDP,” the spokesman said. “Our customers can have even more confidence that their sensitive, high-value shipments are being handled with the highest levels of care and compliance right up to final delivery.”