The abolition of customs barriers on May 1, 2004, and the increased accessibility of the Polish market for companies commissioning clinical trials have led to a surge in interest in the transport of biological material. Just one year after our country’s integration with the European Union, the number of such shipments transported, for example, by the Polish branch of TNT Express, increased by 100%, and these volumes are growing year by year. The immense market interest prompted the company to create a standard service for the transport of biological material and to continuously improve it (Clinical Express).
Biomedical shipment market
Experts estimate the value of the global market for shipments containing biological material at 300 – 500 million USD, with an observable annual growth of approximately 10 – 15%. Promising forecasts also apply to Poland. TNT Express alone transports nearly 1 million shipments annually for the pharmaceutical, biotechnological, and medical sectors. The paramount value for these institutions is the quality of service – as the transported biological material is often unique and therefore has an inestimable value. Most of the biological material collected in Poland (about 70%) and transported by TNT is carried to laboratories in Great Britain, Switzerland, Germany, and France. The company receives approximately 120-150 orders daily. About 60% of them are shipments requiring specialized packaging. As for the legal conditions for this type of transport in Poland, there are de facto no separate regulations (ADR and DGR transport regulations also apply here). Existing bioethics committee regulations obligate researchers, not carriers.
“Bio-shipment” as a standard
Introduced in 2005, the Clinical Express service enables the express transport of such diverse substances as laboratory samples, bodily fluids, semen, serum, tissues, eyeballs, DNA codes, cerebrospinal fluid, umbilical cord blood, and bone marrow. The standard option guarantees the completion of the service via the integrated TNT Express air and road network within 48 hours. The specialized option, however, includes tailoring the service to individual client needs at any time and to any place in the world; it is intended for extremely urgent shipments that must reach the recipient within 24 hours. Shipments are collected directly from senders on the day and at the location indicated by the client. Shipment data is immediately entered into the computer system, allowing the shipment to be monitored from the moment of collection by the courier until delivery. The cost of providing the standard service in Poland using specialized packaging, regardless of the distance between locations, is just over 350 PLN. In the international service, the cost includes a transport rate according to the price list or rates negotiated by the client (for example, the estimated cost of a shipment from Poland to a European country is about 700 PLN).
Examples of applications
During the pilot period, over 300 domestic medical facilities used Clinical Express, including the Institute of Cardiology in Warsaw. The Department of Epidemiology, Cardiovascular Disease Prevention, and Health Promotion of the Institute of Cardiology collaborated with TNT Express as part of the study “Multicenter nationwide health survey of the population, including the organization of a network of research centers and conducting a nationwide study – WOBASZ Project”. In 2003, TNT Express transported approximately 30,000 blood samples frozen in dry ice for the Institute of Cardiology. In addition to samples, TNT was responsible for transporting documentation – both within the country and abroad.
The article comes from the magazine “Logistyka” 6/2007.