Marken has relocated its Chicago logistics hub into a new, larger facility with close proximity to Chicago's O'Hare Airport. The new full-service facility is equipped with state-of-the-art cold chain technology including a walk-in freezer, a walk-in cold room, ultra-low temperature freez-ers and conditioning areas for special cold chain packaging. The new facility offers temperature ranges of: +2 to +8C, -15 to -25C, +15 to +25C and -30 to -60C. A liquid nitrogen service station is planned for later this year in order to support Marken's growing cell and gene transportation services.

The new facility is fully GDP-compliant to support regulated shipments of clinical trial materi-als throughout the Midwestern U.S. The Chicago O'Hare International Gateway provides im-proved processing times and regulatory clearance for import into and export out of the Mid-west.  Marken's North America Region operates from seven logistics hubs in the U.S., includ-ing: New York, Miami, Los Angeles, Boston, San Francisco, Philadelphia and Chicago.

"We expanded our Chicago presence as a direct response to increased demand from our spon-sor pharmaceutical clients and the growing presence of contract manufacturing providers in the area," said Wes Wheeler, chief executive officer, Markn. "We also appreciate the benefits of operating at the Chicago O'Hare Airport, which is an excellent international gateway for our preferred air carriers. We are able to improve our transit times by using this airport and we are able to expand our hybrid services, which leverages the UPS air network for certain lanes. We are continually searching for new locations and better routing solutions in a direct response to the demands of our customers."