AstraZeneca – one of the world’s leading pharmaceutical manufacturers -has awarded NYK Logistics (UK) Ltd a two and a half year contract.

The contract is for the centralized planning and primary distribution of pharmaceutical products from its manufacturing sites throughout Europe into its European distribution network.

Under the new agreement, NYK is providing centralized management and planning of the entire pan-European road transportation operation.

James Shaw (Global Category Lead Freight & Logistics), AstraZeneca said: “We were impressed by NYK’s approach to the tender process – their solution went beyond our initial requirements and demonstrated a high level of added value, along with an understanding of the importance of quality, integrity and audit control in the pharmaceutical supply chain. Their professional and pro-active approach also gave us every confidence in their ability to deliver what they promised.

“At both a cultural and operational level, NYK recognized that the new approach would represent a major challenge for many of our manufacturing plants and established a dedicated implementation team to ensure a seamless transition to the new system, including a dedicated relationship manager to ensure maximum confidence and co-operation from every site.”