UPS Healthcare last week (18 May) announced the official opening of a new US$20m purpose-built facility, which will expand its footprint into the west of Singapore.

Ianne Loh, Vice President for AMEA at UPS Healthcare, said the new location will strengthen the company’s ability to manage and combine both ocean and air shipments and support Singapore’s distribution hub ambitions in the pharmaceutical industry.

According to UPS, Singapore is home to more than 60 multinational medtech companies engaging in R&D and manufacturing for active pharmaceutical ingredients, biologics, drug products and substances. The addition of the new 8,700-sqm facility nearly doubles the integrator’s overall healthcare warehouse space in Singapore, complementing its dedicated facility at the Airline Logistics Park of Singapore (ALPS).

The new facility is located at Gul Circle within easy reach of PSA Terminals, the manufacturing cluster at Tuas Biomedical Park and the site of the future seaport at Tuas. It can store healthcare products in temperatures ranging from -80℃ to 25℃, compliant with all GDPMDS, ISO 13485 and GMP certification standards.

The healthcare hub also provides value-added services such as packaging, labelling, returns logistics and local customs brokerage, to support the current and future logistics needs of businesses in Singapore’s healthcare sector.

UPS said opening of the new facility is the latest in a series of recent developments to increase the range of its healthcare logistics services portfolio in Singapore with the late-2022 launch of UPS Premier, the company’s specialised tracking service for patient-critical products.

The company also recently expanded its hub at Changi Airport to nearly double its package handling capacity. The expansion included the installation of temperature-controlled storage, cooler and freezer capabilities to allow temperature-sensitive healthcare products to be safely stored onsite while in transit.