Rising Cargo Theft Puts Healthcare Shipments Under Pressure

The rise in cargo theft and fraud is becoming an increasingly significant concern for healthcare shipments, according to Arthur Axelrad, co-founder and CEO of Dispatch Science, who notes that these challenges are being raised directly by customers across the supply chain. Healthcare products—often high-value, temperature-sensitive, and tightly regulated—present an attractive target for theft, making security a top priority not only from a financial standpoint, but also from a patient safety and regulatory compliance perspective.

Axelrad explains that customers are encountering issues on multiple fronts. Beyond the straightforward risk of theft, there are broader concerns related to maintaining chain of custody, ensuring product integrity, and meeting stringent compliance requirements. Any disruption along the supply chain—whether through theft, diversion, or fraud—can compromise patient trust, delay care, and expose manufacturers and logistics providers to regulatory and reputational risk.

In response, Axelrad notes that his organization has been actively collaborating with both clients and internal development teams to address these vulnerabilities. By listening closely to customer feedback, they are enhancing their platform with additional security-focused capabilities designed to mitigate risk across the shipment lifecycle. These improvements aim to provide greater visibility, control, and accountability, helping stakeholders better safeguard healthcare products as they move through complex global networks.

The approach underscores a broader industry shift toward proactive risk management. Rather than reacting to incidents after they occur, logistics providers are investing in technology and platform enhancements that strengthen security from the outset. Axelrad emphasizes that this collaborative, solutions-driven strategy is essential as cargo theft continues to evolve in scale and sophistication.

Ultimately, the message is clear: as theft and fraud risks rise, healthcare logistics providers must pair strong partnerships with smarter tools to protect shipments, preserve compliance, and ensure that critical therapies reach patients safely and reliably.

He also describes the most common breakdowns in visibility or accountability during the last mile for temperature-sensitive or high-value medical products; the steps healthcare and pharmaceutical organizations should prioritize in order to build a more resilient, transparent, and patient-safe last-mile delivery ecosystem; and much more.

A transcript of his conversation with PC can be found below.

PC: How significant is the current rise in cargo theft and fraud when it comes to healthcare shipments?

Axelrad: We're hearing through our customers that they do have challenges around security and managing theft, and keeping shipments secure from both a chain of custody and compliance perspective, as well as just a pure theft perspective. So we do hear that from them, and we've been working with our clients and with our development team to add a number of characteristics to our platform to really help mitigate that.