The 70,000 sq ft facility is part of DHL’s range of Life Science Competency Centers that it has established at airports that have high traffic flows of life science products that require specialist handling.
DHL has established its life sciences centre’s in countries including Switzerland and Spain but the opening of the Puerto Rico site marks the first foray into North America.
The choice of Puerto Rico follows on from UPS setting up a 150,000 sq ft cold chain warehouse on the island, with the two delivery giants’ presence suggesting the local industry is in good health.
This has not always appeared to be the case in recent years, as concerns over quality control in Puerto Rico and a dip in companies need for small molecule manufacturing capacity affected employment.
However, Puerto Rico has promoted its biotech sector and this appears to be paying dividends. In addition the services offered by DHL and UPS may help to attract others to the island.
Angelos Orfanos, president life sciences & healthcare, DHL Global Customer Solutions, explained a little about the services his company is offering.
He said: “DHL’s capabilities for the life science and healthcare sector enable customers to safely and securely transport small or large volumes of critical vaccines, active pharmaceutical ingredients (API’s), and other temperature sensitive pharmaceutical, biotech, diagnostic and medical materials.”
DHL will also use the site as a regional training centre for its other facilities dedicated to the warehousing and shipping of life science products.