Rescues cross-border shipments for two Canadian pediatric patients

Challenge

Two Canadian families in Quebec are unable to receive drug shipments from their sites in Canada for diseases affecting their children. Prior to the border closure, they drove roundtrip to the Boston Children’s Hospital to obtain the medication. Without this medication, the children of both these families would die.

Solution

Due to the recent border closure between the US and Canada, the parents reached out to Marken for assistance on securing both the life-saving medicine.

Within hours, Marken arranged for a flight to transport the required temperature-controlled packaging from the Marken New York branch to the Boston branch to pick-up the medication from Boston Children’s Hospital. Due to the distance, several hand-offs were managed on route between Boston and the US-Canadian border. Marken met the parents to deliver the drug.

Outcome

The families are now fully stocked with this vital medication for 2 months.

About Marken

Marken is a wholly owned subsidiary of UPS and is a critical part of UPS Healthcare. With Polar Speed and Marken included, the UPS Healthcare division staffs 128 locations with 5,500 employees worldwide. Marken offers a state-of-the-art GMP-compliant depot network and logistic hubs for clinical drug product storage and distribution in 59 locations worldwide, while maintaining the leading position for Direct-to-Patient and Home Healthcare services, biological sample shipments and biological kit production. Marken’s dedicated 2,000+ staff members manage 154,000 drug product and biological sample shipments every month at all temperature ranges in more than 220 countries and territories and have orchestrated 14,000+ home healthcare visits. Additional services such as cell and gene supply chain services, ancillary material sourcing, storage and distribution, shipment lane verification and qualifications, as well as GDP, regulatory and compliance consultancy add to Marken’s unique position in the pharma and logistics industry.