To Support Pandemic Handling, Garuda Increases Pharmaceutical Cargo Services
Garuda Indonesia Cargo Delivery Services (photo: Antaranews)
BUMNINC.COM | Garuda Indonesia strengthens its pharmaceutical cargo delivery service capabilities, in line with the achievement of this national airline which has won the Pharmaceutical Certificate for Pharmaceutical Good Distribution Practice (GDP).
President Director of Garuda Indonesia, Irfan Setiaputra, revealed that as the national flag carrier, Garuda continues to strengthen its cargo transportation service capabilities to accelerate the handling of the pandemic, one of which is by ensuring the readiness of supporting infrastructure that refers to international standardization in cargo transportation services for pharmaceutical products, including the COVID-19.
“Through obtaining this GDP certification, we hope that we will also support our business development steps, especially in providing safe and reliable transportation services for service needs and distribution of pharmaceutical cargoes that are a global need during this pandemic,” said Irfan in a statement in Jakarta, Monday (02/11/2020).
This certification is a guarantee of the quality of the first pharmaceutical cargo transportation service for airlines in Indonesia. The certification was obtained from a series of audit processes carried out by an independent auditor, namely Sucofindo, in October 2020 regarding the capability of transporting and storing pharmaceutical products on Garuda Indonesia’s air cargo services.
The certification process refers to the fulfillment of 180 standardization criteria of the World Health Organization (WHO) related to Good Distribution Pharmaceutical Products & Good Storage Practices for Pharmaceuticals, which include handling of acceptance processes, storage, and distribution of pharmaceutical products, to GDP training for employees involved in warehouse and cargo handling.
As is well known, the distribution of pharmaceutical products is a challenge in itself because it requires strict standards and protocols. Quality of safety and security in cargo handling, application of product hygiene protocols, and accuracy of cargo delivery times are important parts of the distribution chain for pharmaceutical products.
Therefore, Garuda Indonesia as a state-owned airline in the aviation industry is committed to ensuring that the company is ready to answer these challenges, one of which is through obtaining this Pharmaceutical Certificate.
“We also certainly hope that this certification will further expand Garuda Indonesia’s cargo business portfolio through pharmaceutical cargo transportation services which we project to become a promising potential market share in the future,” concluded Irfan. []
