DHL Express, the world's leading international express delivery provider, has renewed its successful partnership with Cryo Express.

In 2008, DHL Express started the partnership with Cryo Express for the preparation and supply of dry ice & cooled services for its fast growing Clinical Research Organizations (CRO) & Laboratories customers. The partnership mainly focuses on providing clinical trial investigators throughout Europe with packaging containing active cooling material (dry ice or gel packs) to ship samples from their patient base to the CROs' laboratories, where reference laboratory specialists work on the diagnostic test results. These services are now provided to DHL's wide customer base from 7 sites in Europe to enable a fast turnaround. The renewed partnership will open up access to the Cryo Express dry ice supply to more customers and will also see DHL introduce larger packaging options as part of its Medical Express service for the clinical trials industry.

Cryo Express recently opened a logistics facility in the vicinity of DHL's main European hub in Leipzig, Germany. Cryo Express's new location is designed to meet customers' needs by enhancing the company's ability to provide the highest quality product until the latest possible cut-off times, as well as ensuring operational efficiency, with the support of DHL's European express delivery network. The headquarters of Cryo Express in Bobigny, France operates as a control tower and ships from the most efficient location to the clinical trial investigators, who order through a dedicated European Customer Services platform. In the meantime Cryo Express continue to invest to expand their offering.

We expect the renewed alliance between DHL Express and Cryo Express in Europe to bring further opportunities for companies in the clinical trials market to grow and improve their efficiency, explains David Wilson, Executive Vice President, Sales, DHL Express. In addition to large multinationals that are already active across Europe, we believe that smaller, local clinical trials companies looking to partner internationally will also benefit from the convenient, reliable and fast access to dry ice supplies that our partnership guarantees.

Our Leipzig plant has been strategically located in order to meet even the most challenging requirements of customers in the clinical trials industry in Europe, said Christophe Boustouller CEO of Cryo Express. With DHL's main European Hub right on our doorstep, we can ensure the reliable supply of dry ice within the critical timeframes that customers demand. We are delighted to be renewing the partnership with DHL, the global logistics industry leader, and we are particularly excited about the additional opportunities our agreement will create to extend dry ice supply to a broader customer base in Europe and in the other 80 countries in which we are active all over the world.