Great interest in the event held yesterday, June 18, at the Fiumicino Innovation HUB, introduced and moderated by Fabrizio Iacobacci, President of PharmacomItalia.
The welcome remarks by Alessandro Albertini, ANAMA, and Francesco Serpa, Regione Lazio, were followed by the introductory presentations by Gaetano Colella, Secretary General of PharmacomItalia, and Federico Scriboni, Director Aviation Business Development at Aeroporti di Roma.
The discussion then brought together logistics operators, pharmaceutical manufacturing companies, stakeholders and air transport regulatory authorities through the Panel and the Drone Session.
Air Pharmaceutical Logistics Panel
In a constantly evolving global context, the pharmaceutical sector requires increasingly integrated, efficient and innovative logistics models. These were the themes at the heart of the discussion between logistics operators, the pharmaceutical industry and air transport authorities, highlighting the need to adopt new operating models, such as cool corridors, capable of ensuring speed, safety and traceability throughout the entire distribution chain. In this scenario, healthcare logistics plays a strategic role in meeting the market’s growing requirements for quality and control.
The discussion gave voice to an appeal addressed to the pharmaceutical industry: to continue considering quality as the priority factor in defining logistics models. “Technology and today’s tools allow logistics to enter the laboratory,” said President Fabrizio Iacobacci, “and this enables us, as logistics professionals, to gain a deep understanding of the quality requirements needed today, and even more so tomorrow, so that every patient can receive treatment anywhere in the world. In the same way, the laboratory must experience and understand logistics in all its technical aspects. Quality is both the premise and the objective; the cost of the service must not and cannot drive pharmaceutical shipping, but must continue to represent a point of balance within a system that is now mature and oriented toward greater collaborative organization.”
Drone Session in Healthcare Logistics
The session held during the second part of the morning confirmed the growing interest in this technology, now regarded as a concrete lever for the evolution of healthcare and pharmaceutical logistics.
The report “VOC – Voice of Customer – Drones and Healthcare Logistics,” based on a survey conducted among members of the PharmacomItalia Community, reveals strong interest in innovative solutions capable of ensuring faster deliveries, especially for urgent medicines and products intended for remote or hard-to-reach areas.
The medical sector is identified as the area with the greatest development potential, while the main challenges concern the evolution of the regulatory framework, the economic sustainability of operating models, and integration with existing logistics infrastructure. In this context, with particular reference to organ transport, Prof. Mariano Feccia, Director of the UOC Regional Transplant Centre of Lazio, explained the importance of the concept of “ischemic time limit,” meaning the maximum time interval within which an organ must be transplanted in order to ensure its viability and proper functioning. Compliance with this time constraint is a determining factor for the success of the entire transplant procedure, making the use of drones particularly advantageous.
The direction is clear: new operational and collaborative approaches will be key elements in building the healthcare logistics of the future.
Thank you to all participants and speakers for accepting the invitation to take part in building the future of pharmaceutical logistics.
