Pharma.Aero marked its tenth anniversary with a special Anniversary Symposium, bringing together members, partners and industry leaders to reflect on a decade of collaboration and discuss the forces shaping the future of healthcare logistics, from personalised therapies and resilience to sustainability, digitalisation and new supply chain models.
The anniversary comes with another important milestone: Pharma.Aero has reached 100 members worldwide, ten years after it was founded to connect the life sciences and logistics communities and create a neutral platform for collaboration across the healthcare supply chain.
Cross-industry expertise and practical knowledge
Founded in 2016 by Brussels International Airport and Miami International Airport, with Changi Airport among its first members, Pharma.Aero has developed into a global platform connecting life sciences manufacturers with airports, airlines, logistics service providers, solution providers and academia. Over the past decade, its collaborative projects have addressed pharmaceutical airfreight quality standards, sustainable and multimodal logistics, packaging qualification, temperature management and, more recently, AI in pharma and MedTech supply chains, translating cross-industry expertise into practical knowledge for the wider industry.
One example is Pharma.Aero’s Precision Therapy Logistics (PTL) project, whose work is now being taken forward through Precision Therapies Logistics Gateway (PTLG) initiatives in Brussels and Dallas. At Brussels Airport, partners from across the supply chain are developing international logistics corridors and shared operational standards for time- and temperature-critical cell, gene and radioligand therapies. The initiative illustrates how Pharma.Aero projects can provide the foundation for broader industry collaboration and real-world implementation.
Geert Aerts, Chief Cargo & Real Estate Officer at Brussels Airport: “When Pharma.Aero was founded ten years ago, the ambition was clear: to bring together the life sciences and logistics communities around a common goal. The transport of pharmaceutical products requires the highest standards of quality, reliability and compliance, which can only be achieved through close collaboration across the entire supply chain. As Europe’s preferred pharma & Life Sciences hub and a founding member of Pharma.Aero, Brussels Airport is proud to have contributed to this vision from the very beginning and to see how it has evolved into a truly global platform for innovation, collaboration and excellence. As the healthcare sector continues to evolve towards increasingly personalised and precision-driven therapies, the next ten years will undoubtedly be both challenging and exciting, and Brussels Airport remains committed to staying at the forefront of innovation in healthcare logistics.”
Jimmy Nares, Chief of Cargo Development at Miami International Airport: “MIA is proud to have been an original founding member of Pharma.Aero, proud to have seen the association flourish over the years, and even prouder to be part of a global pharma community formed by connecting stakeholders across all regions of the globe.”
Liew Zhong Yao, General Manager, Cargo Business Division at Changi Airport Group: “Over the past decade, Pharma.Aero has played an important role in uniting stakeholders across the life sciences and air cargo ecosystem to advance more reliable, sustainable and patient-centric supply chains. As a founding member, Changi Airport Group values the platform’s ability to turn ideas into actions through industry projects, masterclass and best-practice sharing. As pharmaceutical supply chains continue to evolve, we believe Pharma.Aero’s collaborative model will be more important than ever in shaping the future of healthcare logistics.”
A multimodal community addressing healthcare supply chains
Reaching 100 members as Pharma.Aero enters its second decade reflects both the organisation’s growth and the widening scope of healthcare logistics. What began with a strong focus on pharmaceutical air cargo has developed into a multimodal community addressing healthcare supply chains across air, ocean and road.
Gergely Szorcsik, Chair of Pharma.Aero: “Over the past ten years, Pharma.Aero has grown from an ambitious idea into a truly global collaboration—now bringing together 100 members committed to strengthening and harmonising healthcare logistics across modes. What makes this journey so meaningful is the shared focus on patients: by aligning standards, sharing best practices, and building trusted partnerships across manufacturers, logistics providers, carriers, hubs, and regulators, we’ve helped make the transport of temperature-sensitive and time-critical medicines more reliable, resilient, and transparent—by air, ocean, and road. I’m proud of what the community has achieved in a decade, and even more excited about what we can deliver together in the years ahead.”
Frank Van Gelder, Secretary General of Pharma.Aero: “Pharma.Aero has never been defined by any one member. For ten years, we have proven that when an industry unites around one purpose, the whole becomes greater than the sum of its parts. Together, we move life-saving healthcare forward.”
As Pharma.Aero enters its second decade, its focus will increasingly be on turning these emerging challenges into collaborative industry action: bringing the right stakeholders together, developing practical solutions through cross-industry projects, strengthening the connection between industry and academia, and expanding collaboration across transport modes and regions.
