BY MARK B. SOLOMON, SENIOR EDITOR
PARCEL EXPRESS
transportationreport
the chain of life
For specialty drugmaker Valeant
Pharmaceuticals,
on-time deliveries
can be a life-or-death proposition.
ON THE MORNING OF JAN. 11, 2010, THE CALIFORNIA CALL CENTER AT SPEcialty pharmaceutical manufacturer Valeant Pharmaceuticals International received
an urgent request from the University of Wisconsin Medical Center in Madison.
Two infants had been hospitalized with severe lower respiratory tract infections
caused by a virus known as the Respiratory Syncytial Virus, or RSV. Both were being
treated with a drug called Virazole, which is the only treatment for infants and young
children with that particular condition. However, the infants needed to complete
their treatments by midnight Central time, and the hospital didn’t have any more
dosages available.
Upon receiving the alert—which came in shortly before noon Pacific time—
Valeant contacted Kenco Logistic Services, its long-time logistics service provider.
Kenco, which stores and distributes Valeant’s products from its Chattanooga, Tenn.,
distribution center, then called one of its couriers to determine the chances of delivering the drug by midnight.
When told the delivery could be made no earlier than 2 a.m. the next day, James Levi,
Kenco’s warehouse supervisor, took control of the situation. Levi researched available
flights out of Chattanooga and found a direct flight to Chicago arriving at 6: 50 p.m.
local time. Levi booked the shipment and coordinated the picking and packing process
at the DC. Once the plane landed in Chicago, a courier rushed the drug to the hospital
in Madison, delivering it at 10: 30 p.m. in plenty of time for the infants’ next treatment.
As harrowing as the experience was, this was hardly an unprecedented situation for
