BSI and Poseidon to collaborate on global, multi-modal Good Distribution Practice (GDP) compliance program for medicines and vaccines

10 June 2021

BSI, the business improvement and standards company, today announces a collaborative partnership with Poseidon, the independent pharmaceutical logistics network, with the objective of bringing greater quality, and certainty to the global distribution of medicines and vaccines.

In the new virus age, the need for rigorous compliance with regulations and strict adherence to best-practice surrounding the quality, safe, and efficient distribution of medicines and vaccines worldwide has never been greater. BSI and Poseidon will bring their joint resources and expertise together to develop and execute a Multi-modal Compliance and Standards (MMCS) program to help promote, monitor and assess adherence to the GDP (Good Distribution Practice) regulations that underpin global pharmaceutical logistics. The development of standards and the furtherance of assessment and training will form part of the program scope.

"The respective strengths of BSI and Poseidon will combine to produce a collaborative, industry-wide GDP compliance capability that is designed to bring best practice to this industry", explains Courtney Soulsby, Sector Development Director, Healthcare at BSI. "BSI, as a global business improvement and standards company and a Royal Charter organization, seeks to facilitate and enhance pharmaceutical industry quality distribution practices. The new program will provide a wide range of standards guidance, support and assessment covering all aspects of GDP compliance including quality assurance, risk-management, cold-chain best-practice, training, and standards."

The MMCS program is relevant to pharmaceutical shippers and their end-to-end distribution partners. It will interpret the prevailing local and international GDP regulations and guidelines for each of the main long-haul transport modes and provide a full range of GDP support, standard development, assessment and training services.

Alan Kennedy, Executive Director at Poseidon stresses that much of the strength and legitimacy of the new program stems not only from Poseidon’s track-record, material resources and intellectual assets of its core stakeholders but also to their impartial status. "The strict impartiality and independence of both BSI and Poseidon is absolutely fundamental to the objectivity of the program and in securing the support and patronage of shippers, regulators and the rest of the stakeholders in the value chain," he affirms.

The MMCS GDP initiative, the first of its type, promises to play a pivotal role in the pharmaceutical industry's drive for greater supply chain standardization, resilience and regulatory conformance. According to Angus Metcalfe, BSI’s Managing Director, Global Healthcare: "The entire pharma-logistics industry stands to gain from this joined-up initiative which will reduce compliance costs, extract more value from logistics and lead to greater process and technical harmonization. It has the potential to be a 'game-changer' for raising standards".