IATA’s CEIV Pharma program has succeeded in making air freight a less risky proposition for pharma shippers, but, as delegates to the World Cargo Symposium (WCS) in Abu Dhabi learned yesterday, about 25% of vaccines still reach their destination in “degraded condition.” And Andrea Gruber, IATA’s Senior Manager Special Cargo said the air freight industry must be careful not to oversell its capabilities: “We need to understand what we are capable of and communicate that transparently.”

The editorial staff of our sister publication Air Cargo World is onsite at the Abu Dhabi event, and associate editor Lewis King covered the day-long CEIV Pharma Workshop. You can read his full report of the surprisingly frank discussions here.

If you are interested in learning more about the air freight cold chain, join us at Cargo Facts Asia in Shanghai, 25 – 26 April, where Sebastiaan Scholte, CEO of Jan de Rijk Logistics and Chairman of The Cool Chain Association, will take part in a session devoted to shipment of perishables. To register, or for more information, go to CargoFactsAsia.com