Virgin Atlantic Cargo has been granted a Wholesale Distribution Authorisation (WDA) for its global headquarter operations and its Pharma Zone at Heathrow Airport, confirming compliance with Good Distribution Practices (GDP).
WDA was established by the UK government’s Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), which works closely with the European Medicines Agency (EMEA) and other regulators including the US Food and Drug Administration.
Accreditation cover its headquarters follows handling partner dnata gaining WDA for its Cargo Point operation at Heathrow, which incorporates the Pharma Zone, shared by Virgin Atlantic and its joint venture partner, Delta Cargo.
Virgin Atlantic Cargo managing director, Dominic Kennedy says: “We have been listening to our customers and responding to what they want. Wholesale Distribution Authorisation (WDA) was the regulatory compliance they asked us to achieve and now we meet their requirements at both our global headquarters and Pharma Zone.
“We can measure our customers’ approval by the increasing pharma bookings they are giving us. We are confident 2018 will be a record year for our pharma and life science business as customers commit to airlines like Virgin which are delivering tangible benefits.”
The Pharma Zone is a secure and segregated facility with GDP trained staff dedicated to the handling and storage of pharma shipments.
It incorporates walk-in pods for loose pharma shipments and six chambers for pallet storage, which can accommodate 24 PMCs in 2-8C or 15-25C temperature ranges, as well as multiple charging points for active containers.
In addition to CSafe’s new RAP container, Virgin also offers customers the opportunity to utilise CSafe’s RKN unit and Envirotainer’s RKN t2, RAP t2, RKN e1 and RAP e2 units for temperature controlled pharma products.
Virgin Atlantic Cargo manager – products and partnerships, Darren Sherlock says: “This is a further important enhancement of the pharma services we can offer to our customers and has been achieved with the fantastic support of our partners dnata and ASC Associates. We will continue to work closely with our customers to ensure that every benefit we deliver is based on what they need.”
