Kuehne + Nagel's UK headquarters has been selected to provide cold chain services to AstraZeneca, an international pharmaceutical company.

Kuehne + Nagel will be responsible for handling part of AstraZeneca's exports of temperature-sensitive pharmaceuticals from Europe to the rest of the world.

Under the new agreement, Kuehne + Nagel will supply a complete solution for the transport by air and sea of products indicated for therapeutic categories, including oncology and anaesthetics, as well as active pharmaceutical ingredients.

Kuehne + Nagel will arrange export of goods from AstraZeneca's production sites in the UK, Sweden, France, Italy and Germany to further production sites and regional distribution centers in the Middle East, Japan, Africa and the US.

The pharmaceutical products, which are in both emulsion and solid form, must be maintained within a temperature range. In order to achieve this, Kuehne + Nagel has developed cold chain packaging solutions to protect product integrity in compliance with the UK's Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency's Good Distribution Practice.