LATAM Cargo pharma shipments surge 150% as global market stays flat

LATAM Cargo reported a 150% increase in pharmaceutical air cargo shipments between Europe and China, equivalent to 2.5 times the prior traffic, while the global pharmaceutical air cargo market remains flat. The report gives no baseline tonnage or comparison period, so readers cannot treat the corridor result as industry-wide demand growth.

Frank van Gelder, secretary general of Pharma.Aero, told The Loadstar that China, India and the Middle East are reshaping the geographical centre of pharmaceutical production and innovation. Europe and North America remain central, but van Gelder describes their role as evolving rather than ending.

What is changing in pharmaceutical production?

Van Gelder said: “China is no longer only a major source of pharmaceutical ingredients and manufacturing capacity; it is becoming an increasingly important centre for biotechnology, clinical development, and innovative medicines.” India, he added, remains essential to generics and manufacturing while expanding its innovative capabilities.

The redistribution matters because pharmaceutical supply chains now connect production, healthcare providers, clinical centres and specialist logistics hubs across several regions. In van Gelder’s assessment, this creates a multi-polar pharmaceutical world rather than a market served through a small number of dominant origins and gateways.

What does a multi-node supply chain require?

For air cargo, that structure can open new regional gateways and specialised corridors. Logistics providers must connect manufacturing sites, clinical centres, specialised hubs and healthcare delivery points with greater precision, an orchestration problem that grows with each added participant.

Operators must qualify every node, connect it to partners, ensure interoperability and justify its economics, according to van Gelder. A node that fails those tests turns diversification into what he called expensive duplication, adding complexity without assuring commercial gain.

Does more connectivity guarantee resilience?

Van Gelder said: “More nodes do not automatically mean greater resilience, more tonnage, or better profitability.” More hubs can broaden the available network, but the commercial case still depends on tonnage, coordination and economic justification rather than the number of points on the map.

The infrastructure burden is equally specific. Pharmaceutical products require temperature-controlled facilities, qualified handling and reliable links between supply-chain participants, particularly as medicines become more specialised. Handling cannot be separated from clinical timing, especially where a missed movement has consequences beyond a delayed delivery.

Why do advanced therapies raise the bar?

Advanced therapies raise that standard further, van Gelder said. In autologous cell therapy, a patient’s cells are collected, transported for manufacturing and returned as a personalised treatment, making chain of identity, chain of custody, time, temperature and clinical scheduling inseparable.

A disruption can affect a treatment appointment, he said. Radioligand therapies introduce additional highly time-sensitive, product-specific constraints, so logistics performance becomes part of the treatment schedule rather than merely a transport service.

Will new production hubs lift air cargo volumes?

New production centres and growth in innovative medicines will not automatically translate into higher airfreight volumes, van Gelder warned. For carriers, each gateway decision must track tonnage, qualified demand and dependable connections rather than assume fragmented production will support enough traffic to justify added capacity.

LATAM Cargo’s 150% Europe-China increase shows what one operator can achieve on a growing corridor, although the absence of a stated baseline limits any wider comparison. The flat global market remains the counterweight: one company’s traffic does not establish that the sector has entered broad expansion.

The next test is whether emerging hubs in China, India and the Middle East convert distributed production into sustained pharmaceutical traffic. They must also justify temperature-controlled infrastructure, specialist handling and network coordination without resorting to costly duplication. The multi-node model remains plausible; the profit remains unproven.