Saudia adds Tower Cold Chain to roster of temp-controlled containers

Saudia Cargo has signed a new global rental agreement with Tower Cold Chain and added it to its approved providers of temperature-controlled containers for shipping pharmaceutical, biotech and life science products.

“The deal reinforces Saudia Cargo’s commitment to having the broadest possible selection of cold chain products (both in terms of cargo size and temperature requirements) to serve the growing requirements of pharmaceutical customers from around the world,” it reads.

A key benefit of Tower Cold Chain’s technology is its reliability in maintaining product integrity without the need of electricity even in extreme heat, meaning that a solution is required to prevent temperature excursions.

“Given these conditions, we have an extra duty of care to customers to ensure due diligence in choosing our pharmaceutical cold chain partners,” commented Adel Elshazly global product manager at Saudia Cargo. “Tower’s passive solutions are proven to maintain temperatures up to 120 hours, without any need for intervention or external power.

The Tower range offers effective physical and temperature protection for internal payloads from 3075 litres down to 26.4 litres – the latter made possible by the launch in 2022 of the KTEvolution, the company’s first hand-held container, ideal for small-batch, direct-to-patient shipments.

Tower containers ensure up to 120 hour protection for products that require an internal temperature of -80°C (ultracold), -60°C (ultracold), -20°C (frozen), +5°C (refrigerated) or +20°C (controlled room temperature).

“The breadth of the Tower range means we can extend our network and provide customers with greater choice, including the ability to ship pharmaceuticals on narrow-bodied as well as wide-bodied aircrafts” Adel Elshazly stated.

With hubs in Saudi Arabia’s three biggest airports – Jeddah, Riyadh and Dammam – Saudia Cargo is a key partner for companies shipping pharmaceuticals into the Middle East. The European market in particular is a major source of pharmaceutical and life science cargo, a factor that was integral to Saudia Cargo’s selection of Tower Cold Chain.

“Tower has a growing network of hubs, including locations where much of our business hails from airports such as Frankfurt, Zurich and Milan. The proximity and availability of Tower containers at these hubs means we can offer seamless and direct delivery to our airports”.

Customers wanting to use Tower containers should discuss their requirements with Saudia Cargo, who will then lease the chosen solution using Tower’s intuitive 24/7 online ordering system.

“We choose our partners carefully and we know Tower is a pillar of the pharmaceutical container market, we are delighted to announce this partnership which will take us to new heights for global customer satisfaction” added Adel Elshazly.

Tower’s chief executive Niall Balfour said: “As a global company, this partnership is a vital part of our commitment to customers. Saudia Cargo gives us a valuable gateway into the Middle East, and in turn we are honoured to be able to help them meet customer demand for robust, reliable, and reusable pharmaceutical cold chain solutions.”