TNT India launches `Medpack' service
This is not exactly a biotechnology company but is very much connected with the Bangalore Bio 2003, which was inaugurated on Tuesday.
TNT India, the mail, express, and logistics service provider headquartered in Bangalore, has introduced specialised services for the life sciences segment.The service, which is called “medpak.” is a faster, more convenient and reliable solution for moving biomedical samples under various temperature conditions.
The new service offers shipment of infected and non-infected medical sample under preferred temperature conditions.
It is available for domestic and international shipments. The customers are Contract Research Organisations (CROs), pharma companies, central laboratories, diagnostic centres and leading hospitals.
Today, most of the drug discovery research is outsourced to large central laboratories, which are contracted by pharmaceutical companies.
This is how the CROs have emerged. They enrol sites, usually hospitals and investigators, generally doctors, to support these researches.
Doctors collect biomedical samples such as blood, serum, plasma, urine, stool, bacteria, enzymes, virus, skin and hair from patients/volunteers for clinical trials where advanced techniques are used to test a new drug or disease on biomedical samples.
Samples collected across the country need to be sent to central laboratories based overseas for further research.
Biomedical samples may be infected or non-infected (diagnostic) in nature.
Most of them have a limited shelf life and have to be preserved and transported at preferred temperature conditions – ambient, refrigerated or frozen.
For transportation by air they have to be packed in specific IATA approved packaging.
The life sciences industry is extremely dynamic and has unique logistics needs such as temperature-controlled packaging, safe handling of samples with limited lifespan and transport of infected samples and the “medpak” service meets these needs.
TNT also has staff trained in the handling of “dangerous goods” to handle infected samples. The company will pick up samples from anywhere in India and deliver them to destination within the country and overseas.
TNT India has 23 branches in 16 Indian cities and over 600 employees. Recently, the company was awarded ISO 9001:2000 certification and it is the only express distribution company in the country to achieve this certification.
Copyright 2003. All Rights Reserved.
Copyright © 2003 Financial Times Ltd. All rights reserved.
