Amsterdam Airport Schiphol is to invest €1 million ($1.06 million) in developing an early warning system for pharma shippers, starting this month and results expected later this year.

The money, a subsidy from the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research, and TKI Dinalog, to fund data collection and monitoring of Pharma Gateway Amsterdam (PGA) shipments in order to identify exceptions such as temperature incursions.

Schiphol has teamed up with Air France KLM Cargo, Cargonaut and PGA members for the project, with the Schiphol Cargo Community and Cargonaut adding performance management and alerting capabilities to the community Cloud, Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences and Delft University of Technology doing underlying research, contribute to the development and measure benefits for shippers and their transport suppliers.

Amsterdam Airport Schiphol cargo director, Jonas van Stekelenburg says: “Pharma shippers are asking for more visibility so they can have confidence that their sensitive cargo is being handled safely through the supply chain and find solutions if there are issues such as temperature incursions.”

Air France KLM Cargo executive vice president, Marcel de Nooijer says pharma is very important for the airline, saying: “We are keen to improve the supply chain in collaboration with other parties in the chain, contributing to overall higher product integrity for pharmaceutical shipments.”

PGA was formed a year ago with the aim of providing a transparent and qualified process, including 13 members representing forwarders, ground handlers, hauliers and airlines, and members are expected to be certified to International Air Transport Association Center of Excellence for Independent Validators Pharma standards.