医药创新并非提升物流利润的处方：Pharma.Aero警告货代勿将高价值药品需求等同于利润增长
Innovation in pharma not a prescription for boosting logistics profits
Pharma.Aero秘书长Frank van Gelder警告货代，复杂、高价值且有时效要求的药品需求增长，并不等于货量增加或物流利润改善。托运人要求运营商证明其能保障产品完整性、治疗连续性与可预测性，单靠贴上医药物流标签不足以支撑溢价。盈利取决于专业化、可衡量的质量和成本管理，同时医药物流还需投入合格基础设施、操作与人员。
© Peter Scott
11 November 2026
Forwarders should beware of confusing demand for complex, high-value pharmaceutical therapies with expectations of increased volumes or improved profitability, warned Pharma.Aero secretary general Frank van Gelder this week.
He told The Loadstar that the days of assuming higher-value goods were a free pass to slap the shipper with higher rates were now in the past.
He said shippers now wanted proof that logistics operators can handle specialist medications and time-sensitive treatments.
“Demand for complex, high-value and time-sensitive therapies can increase, even when traditional tonnage grows more slowly or shifts between modes,” he explained. “Operators must demonstrate what their services actually protect.
“This means showing product integrity, continuity of treatment, predictability. and lower total risk. Premium prices cannot be justified merely by applying a pharma label. Profitability will depend on specialisation, measurable quality, and intelligent cost management.”
Instead, Mr van Gelder said, profitability depended on operators having the ability to develop specialist capabilities, demonstrate measurable quality, and manage costs effectively – particularly as pharma logistics requires investment in qualified infrastructure, handling, and personnel.
For forwarders, that distinction is important, because in pharma the requirements of different products can vary considerably, and the costs of maintaining appropriate handling standards can be substantial.
Mr van Gelder said profitability would depend on “specialisation, measurable quality, and intelligent cost management”, adding that the sector faced a broader challenge of balancing investment with the need to maintain affordable healthcare and access to new treatments.
He labelled this the “healthcare pressure point”, with pharmaceutical innovation on one side and affordability, access, and rising costs on the other.
And he noted that the challenge was “not simply whether we can transport the next generation of medicines”, it had become “whether we can help make them accessible and affordable to patients”.
来源：The Loadstar · theloadstar.com