TNT India sees biomedical shipments soar

TNT India, sees huge business in handling biomedical shipment service, as the country becoming an important base for clinical trials.

Most of the global research today in new drug discovery is outsourced to large central laboratories, which are contracted by pharmaceutical companies. Hence the dependence of contract research organisations on logistics in clinical trials. Before a new drug is introduced into the market it has to undergo extensive testing. Advanced techniques used to test a new drug or diseases on biomedical samples are called clinical trials.

As per the WTO norm, by 2005, India will have to adhere by the global product patent norms for drug development. This also has led to a heightened research and development activity in the pharmaceutical and biomedical industry.

“As India has attracted 20 clinical trial companies, to cater to this business we are investing on human resources and training personnel in dangerous goods handling,” said Ni Sheng Jie, general manager, life science, TNT Asia. Biomedical samples which need quick transportation are blood, serum, plasma, urine, stool, bacteria, enzymes, virus, skin and hair. These biomedical samples collected in India need to be sent to Central Labs based overseas for further research.

Already a team of 30 has been trained in the handling of life science products across 26 locations in India and the company has around 250 personnel (out of 550) involved in operations.
-The Economic Times