Cainiao successfully transported domestic cancer adjuvant therapy drugs across borders at 2-8℃ cold chain directly to South America

At the end of November 2021, on the platform of Hangzhou East Railway Station, several dark blue temperature-controlled boxes the size of suitcases filed into a freight train that was about to depart for Beijing. These temperature-controlled boxes carrying domestic cancer adjuvant treatment drugs then traveled by rail and air for more than 10 days across Asia, Europe and America, and recently arrived in South America for customs clearance, unloading and "last mile" delivery.

Cainiao used its 2-8℃ temperature-controlled cross-border pharmaceutical cold chain logistics technology to successfully transport China's first independently developed cancer adjuvant treatment drug to South America. This move marks that cross-border pharmaceutical logistics has become an important part of Cainiao's internationalization.

IATA data shows that the current global aviation industry recovery is seriously uneven. Affected by factors such as low vaccination rates, the recovery of the aviation industry in the Middle East, Africa, Latin America and other regions lags significantly behind North America, Europe and other regions. Aviation industry insiders said that coupled with the impact of recent strikes in Europe, routes in many countries have been suspended, and Europe's air transport capacity has been reduced by at least half.

In the face of the dilemma of international air routes being cut off, the Cainiao International team built a new pharmaceutical cold chain route across three continents from scratch. Only one bill of lading was used throughout the entire process to achieve three-way transport from China to Latin America. This "one order to the end" brings convenience to customers. In other words, this is equivalent to using three express companies to relay a courier, but consumers only need to place an order and use one waybill number to query logistics details. The seamless connection between different airlines, international airports, and cold storages behind this, and the average temperature control of about 5°C throughout the process, is precisely a reflection of Cainiao's solid global smart logistics capabilities.

Hangzhou Jiuyuan Gene is one of the earliest genetic engineering pharmaceutical companies in Zhejiang Province and even in China. It began to engage in the research of genetic engineering products in the biopharmaceutical field as early as 1992. Since 2002, Jiuyuan Gene has also started to board the international express train and began to export domestically produced biopharmaceutical products to all parts of the world.

However, due to the recent recurrence of the epidemic, the foreign airlines that originally carried this batch of biopharmaceuticals had their routes cut off, and the airport cargo terminal had a serious warehouse explosion, so the drugs were delayed for more than a month and could not be shipped out. Mr. Zhou, manager of the overseas trade department of Hangzhou Jiuyuan Gene, told reporters that the threshold for cold chain transportation of pharmaceuticals is much higher than that of general goods. In addition, the entire transportation chain is long, the value of the goods is high, and the temperature control of 2-8℃ is required throughout the process . For a while, no logistics company was able to "take the order". Until the emergence of Cainiao, we created routes and cold chain temperature control throughout the process.

After receiving the request from Jiuyuan Gene, the Cainiao team quickly built a new route plan and provided a "nanny-level" full-link hosting service. When packing at the pharmaceutical factory, the Cainiao team placed the injection solution in a groove of the corresponding size and surrounded it with insulation material. In addition, Cainiao optimized a durable temperature control box that can maintain a temperature of 2-8°C for more than 300 hours by increasing the thickness and density of the insulation board.

In order to ensure real-time temperature control tracking throughout the process, Cainiao has equipped each temperature control box with a global temperature recorder, which can upload the temperature inside the incubator to the cloud in real time. Once the temperature exceeds the warning range, an alarm message will be sent to the management staff in a timely manner. In addition, Cainiao also arranges special personnel to monitor the entire process and regularly send temperature information back to customers.

"With the vigorous development of the domestic biopharmaceutical industry, Chinese biopharmaceutical companies are trending overseas and are gradually emerging on the global stage." Zhao Jian, general manager of Cainiao International Supply Chain, told reporters that relying on Cainiao's global logistics capabilities and rich experience in transporting vaccines, we can provide Chinese pharmaceutical companies with a one-stop solution that is globally accessible, digital, and traceable throughout the entire chain, thereby increasing the efficiency of China's pharmaceutical products going overseas.

According to statistics from consulting firm ChinaBio, in 2020, there were 271 cross-border transactions between Chinese and overseas pharmaceutical companies, a 300% increase from 2015. "Now is the golden period for Chinese biopharmaceutical companies to go overseas. On the one hand, the domestic biopharmaceutical industry has achieved a certain stage of development, and on the other hand, Chinese pharmaceutical companies need to open up a broader market." Mr. Zhou told reporters that cross-border pharmaceutical cold chain logistics has always been a constraint on our export of medicines. In the past, we could only rely on foreign logistics companies. Cainiao is the first Chinese logistics company to serve our exports, and we are very pleased that Chinese medicines have been successfully transported by the cold chain technology of Chinese logistics companies.

It is reported that Cainiao has transported more than 250 million pieces of medical supplies to more than 150 countries and regions around the world , and transported millions of doses of Chinese COVID-19 vaccines to countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Relying on the technology and experience of transporting Chinese COVID-19 vaccines at 2-8℃, Cainiao already has the technical capability of cross-border full-link transportation at ultra-low temperatures of 15-25℃ and -15 to -25℃.

Cainiao successfully transports domestic cancer adjuvant treatment drugs across borders

2-8℃ cold chain directly to South America