A BIG VACCINE CHALLENGE: MOVING MILLIONS OF VIALS IN DEEP- FREEZE
The medical industry’s dash to produce theworld’s first coronavirus vaccines in just a fewmonths is heightening the urgency for the work horses of global trade to be ready for the historic charge to defeat the disease.
Only 28 per cent of companies involved in supply- chain logistics feel well prepared to handle Covid- 19 vaccines and 19 per cent characterised their readiness as very unprepared, according to a survey released Wednesday that showed a wide swath between optimists and pessimists. The poll, conducted in mid- September by the International Air Cargo Association and Pharma. Aero, is part of an effort to coordinate widespread delivery of the immunisation.
Logistics nightmare
Just over half of 181 respondents already have the vehicles, containers and the connections needed to move hundreds of millions of vials in a constant deepfreeze. Almost a quarter said they’re still trying to procure such equipment, the survey of airlines, freight forwarders, airport operators and ground handlers showed.
The preparedness of those responsible for moving the medicine from manufacturing sites to health clinics worldwide is paramount because the doses, once in transit, must stay ultra- cold as they traverse aworld economy where supply chains are already at capacity. The industry is also trying to avoid bidding wars, shortages and every- country- for- itself attitudes that sparked a stampede for personal protective equipment in the initial months of the pandemic.
“This is the greatest challenge that the logistics industry is facing today ormaybe ever,” said Emir Pineda, manager of aviation trade and logistics at Miami International Airport. “The supply chain is made up of many links and if one of those links breaks, then we’re going to have an issue.” He said the Covid vaccine roll- out alone may generate 65,000 tonnes of air freight, more than four times the amount of vaccines transported in 2019 and enough to fill 930 Boeing Co. 747 freighters.