By: Dom C. Ouano, Marketing Coordinator

Select Agents & Toxins (SA&T) require additional regulations during shipping. In 2015, it was reported in the media that a large institution neglected to ship SA&T’s properly. As a result of this, a much greater deal of scrutiny followed, and a major shipping service provider decided to keep Select Agents & Toxins out of their transit lines. This has caused several changes regarding the delivery of these products, such as the shipping price and processing time. List Labs wants to share this information with you, along with some recommendations. Please note that the following information only involves products that are classified as SA&T by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Shipments of other toxins are not impacted by these changes.

What happened?

• Strict IATA regulations made the shipping of Select Agents & Toxins complicated to begin with. Last year, a major shipping courier service provider decided they would no longer carry SA&T products, both domestically and internationally.
• The loss of this major shipping provider creates a short-term economical shift in the relationship between the supply and demand of SA&T shipping services. The world now has lost the major carrier who provided great, efficient service, yet the demand to ship these products remains.
• UPS accepts carriage of SA&T, but only for domestic shipments contained in a special box approved by IATA shipping regulations. World Courier accepts carriage of SA&T internationally, however the scheduling arrangements take about one week as different airlines and countries have different regulations.

What does this mean for researchers who use List Labs SA&T products in their research?

• For researchers in the US, domestic shipments of SA&T can be expected to take an additional few days and will have a slight increase in freight cost.
• For researchers overseas, shipments will take more time on our end to gain acceptance for carriage. Shipping internationally with World Courier will also incur a higher cost, ranging from $600 to $1200, depending on your location and the airline who will accept the item.

In the past, we have noticed that shipments of these products are usually very small in terms of the number of vials purchased at one time. To minimize shipping and administrative costs, List Labs recommends ordering multiple vials for each shipment. Our products are very stable when stored as recommended and consolidating purchases can minimize shipping costs as a percentage of the total order cost.

We hope to see the shipping landscape evolve further in the future with more shipping providers creating more options and added flexibility. As always, we adhere to the current regulations as the SA&T business is controlled. We continue to work diligently with our current carriers to create a dependable and cost effective solution for our customers.

List Labs is part of the Federal Select Agent and Toxin Program.

More information can be found on our website as well as the Federal Select Agent Program website.

Orders and questions can be sent to ORDERS@LISTLABS.COM.