Virgin Atlantic Cargo has been granted Wholesale Distribution Authorisation from the UK’s Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency for its global headquarters operations and its new Pharma Zone at Heathrow Airport.

According to Virgin, the accreditation for its VHQ global headquarters follows handling partner dnata’s recent WDA approval for its Cargo Point operation at Heathrow, incorporating the Pharma Zone shared by Virgin Atlantic Cargo and its joint venture partner Delta Cargo. WDA confirms both companies’ compliance with the European Union’s Good Distribution Practice guidelines.

“The standards and requirements for everyone involved in the transportation of pharmaceuticals and life science products set out clear guidelines of what is expected of airlines serving customers in this growing market,” said Dominic Kennedy, managing director of Virgin Atlantic Cargo. “We have been listening to our customers and responding to what they want. Wholesale Distribution Authorisation was the regulatory compliance they asked us to achieve and now we meet their requirements at both our global headquarters and Pharma Zone. We can measure our customers’ approval by the increasing pharma bookings they are giving us. We are confident 2018 will be a record year for our pharma and life science business as customers commit to airlines like Virgin which are delivering tangible benefits.”

Virgin’s Pharma Zone is a secure and segregated facility with GDP-trained staff dedicated to the handling and storage of pharma shipments. It incorporates walk-in pods for loose pharma shipments, six chambers for pallet storage which can accommodate 24 PMCs at 2-8°C or 15-25°C, as well as multiple charging points for active containers.

Virgin became the first UK airline to approve the use of CSafe’s new RAP unit in January 2018, adding to CSafe’s RKN unit and Envirotainer’s RAP e2, RAP t2, EKN e1 and RKN t2 units for temperature-controlled pharma shipments.

“This is a further important enhancement of the pharma services we can offer to our customers and has been achieved with the fantastic support of our partners dnata and ASC Associates,” said Darren Sherlock, manager of products and partnerships at Virgin Atlantic Cargo. “We will continue to work closely with our customers to ensure that every benefit we deliver is based on what they need.”

Through its JV with Delta Cargo, Virgin now offers almost a quarter of all capacity in the trans-Atlantic market, the busiest global lane for pharma shipments.

Pharmaceuticals and life science shipments rose by over 20% in 2017 and are expected grow further in 2018, according to Virgin Atlantic Cargo.