UPS Redefines Critical Package Delivery Experience with Launch of UPS Premier in the Philippines

UPS Healthcare has announced that UPS Premier – its highly-specialized, best-in-class shipping service combining a new level of tracking, prioritization and recovery for patient-critical, time- and temperature-sensitive shipments – is now available to customers in the Philippines.

“Visibility and traceability are essential to prioritizing the life-saving medications our customers ship, and their customers need,” said UPS Healthcare President Wes Wheeler. “The difference between life and death for patients often hinges on the ability to quickly ship and precisely track, monitor and locate medications.”

“Over the past couple of years, UPS Premier has already helped enable the delivery of hundreds of millions of COVID-19 vaccines around the world with near-perfect on-time delivery. We’re excited to be adding another industry-leading service to the wide range of products and solutions available to UPS customers in the Philippines,” added Wheeler.

Of the three levels in the UPS Premier service portfolio available globally, UPS Premier Gold is now available in the Philippines. UPS Premier Gold offers acceleration and ‘first-in first-off’ prioritization, and near real-time monitoring made possible through state-of-the-art proprietary mesh sensors built into the package labelling to narrow visibility down to three meters within the UPS network.

Other benefits include an expedited package recovery process that allows the shipper to configure specific handling instructions should an intervention be required, plus capacity for same day redelivery. UPS Premier provides temperature-controlled shipping in environments spanning ambient to frozen, depending on specific shipment requirements.

The entire process is overseen 24/7 by live agents with intimate knowledge of the shipment’s requirements ensuring medications remain compliant, preventing spoilage and loss of product, and reducing costs associated with reshipments.

“Since we began operating in the Philippines in 1997, UPS customers have come to expect an unsurpassed level of reliability and accountability from the services we provide,” said Russell Reed, managing director of UPS Philippines.

“At the heart of every UPS innovation is customer experience, and this is never more relevant than when we’re delivering for a patient. By combining visibility, traceability, control, recovery and international brokerage prioritization into one service, we’re redefining expectations and what is possible for the critical logistics industry, while taking customer experience to a whole new level.”

In Asia Pacific, the biologics market is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 9.2% from 2020 to 2026, accelerated by factors such as the increase in biologics therapy. This growth is mirrored in the Philippines where the pharmaceutical industry is expected to grow up to PHP216 billion by 2024 as it continues to be an attractive market for pharmaceutical firms. Hence, innovations in biologics, specialty pharmaceuticals, and medications genetically personalized for each patient’s needs are driving significant demand for precision logistics to support more patient-critical, time- and temperature-sensitive products.

Critical healthcare packages that utilize UPS Premier Gold typically include tissue samples, biopsies, implantable medical devices for scheduled surgeries, and personally formulated medications.