What's new: UPS Healthcare is continuing its aggressive expansion throughout Europe, home to some of the fastest-growing healthcare markets in the world. The investments include new and upgraded facilities, an expanded active cold chain fleet and new products and services dedicated to offering a truly end-to-end solution.
Why does it matter: The global market for biologic therapeutic drugs is set to increase from $285.5 billion in 2020 to $421.8 billion by 2025, and Europe is home to the majority of the world's largest and most innovative companies in pharmaceuticals and medical devices.
These next-generation treatments, as well as specialty pharmaceuticals and personalized medicine, require precise global logistics for these patient-critical, time-and temperature-sensitive products.
"The healthcare industry is innovating like never before," said Wes Wheeler, president of UPS Healthcare. "We're aggressively expanding our network and services to ensure that these patient-critical products get where they need to be, on time and at the right temperature."
UPS Healthcare has been investing in a network to meet those needs for a long time, building out a global 'network within a network' to provide the best quality healthcare logistics services on the market. From clinical trials and manufacturing, to last-mile delivery, UPS Healthcare has the expertise, scale, and quality network to support what is needed - now, and well into the future.
Expanding healthcare capabilities: Throughout 2021, UPS Healthcare invested in over 36,000m2 of cold chain GMP coolers and freezers globally, including in newly dedicated and upgraded healthcare facilities in Italy, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, the Netherlands and Germany.
It also launched UPS® Premier service across Europe, the technology upgrade for critical healthcare shipments thanks to advanced sensor technology.
Its highly specialized handling with enhanced visibility and control along the way makes it possible to track shipments within three meters of their location anywhere in UPS's global network.
Our newly upgraded and expanded European Healthcare hub operates in Roermond in the Netherlands, close to UPS's European air hub at Cologne Bonn Airport, and has direct access to major ports, including Rotterdam, Antwerp, and Amsterdam, allowing for short transit times across the world and next-day delivery to 80% of Europe.
Earlier this year, UPS Healthcare also expanded its specialized temperature-controlled fleet across Benelux and Italy. The vehicles transport healthcare products in temperature-controlled environments and offer next-day, GDP-compliant delivery for hospitals, pharmacies, clinics, laboratories, and doctors that are all increasingly relying on time-critical and temperature-sensitive treatments for their patients. This expansion adds to UPS Healthcare’s existing cold chain transport services in Hungary, the United Kingdom and Poland.
The Impact: UPS Healthcare's growing infrastructure across Europe was built to handle temperature-sensitive products, and it supported the delivery of millions of COVID-19 vaccines across Europe. By 2022, UPS had delivered 1.5 billion COVID-19 vaccines to over 110 countries, at 99.9% on-time delivery.
