(Bloomberg) – The medical industry’s career to produce the world’s first coronavirus vaccines in just a few months increases the urgency that the world’s workhorses will be in a position for the historic burden of defeating the disease.
Only 28% of companies interested in the logistics of the chain feel well prepared to administer Covid-19 vaccines and 19% rated their preparation as very unprepared, according to a survey published Wednesday that showed a wide diversity between optimists and pessimists. mid-September through the International Air Freight and Pharma. Aero, is part of an effort to coordinate the widespread distribution of vaccines.
Just over a portion of the 181 respondents already have the vehicles, boxes and connections to move millions of vials in constant freezing conditions. Nearly a quarter said they were still looking to unload such equipment, according to the survey of airlines, carriers, airport operators and flats. showed the manipulators.
Preparing those guilty of moving the drug from production sites to fitness clinics around the world is paramount, as doses, once in transit, must remain very cold as they move through a global economy where chains of origin are already at full capacity. The industry also seeks to avoid wars of offers, scarcity and attitudes of each and every country that caused an avalanche of non-public protective devices in the early months of the pandemic.
“This is the biggest challenge facing the logistics industry today or never,” said Emir Pineda, director of the aviation and logistics industry at Miami International Airport and a board member of the association, known as Tiaca. “The source string is made up of many links and if one of those links breaks, we’re going to have a problem. “
With little accuracy as to when drug brands will produce enough vaccines for mass distribution, logistical estimates are difficult to download and inherently unreliable. Pineda said the deployment of the Covid-19 vaccine can generate only 65,000 tons of air shipment, more than 4 times more than the amount of vaccines transported in 2019 and enough to fill 930 Boeing Co shipping ships.
DIFFERENT BALL GAMES
The pharmaceutical industry has been transporting vaccines for many years, so there is experience, but the scale and complexity of this effort will require much greater coordination between the personal sector, customs officials, governments and non-governmental organizations.
“Before Covid-19, it was a hundred percent evolutionary: we knew how many flus there were in the world, we know how many cases of meningitis there were,” said Frank Van Gelder, general secretary of Pharma. Aero. “But you all suddenly have a pandemic, which captures the entire world population, and then you start playing another ball game. “
Such an air bridge would be complicated. The task is complicated, in addition to the constant and strong demand for online products and essential items, such as groceries already filled by cargo planes and container ships. 50% compared to a year ago, and shipping container fees have tripled since the beginning of the year.
Meanwhile, transportation corporations have started where the highest vaccines will occur: in places like Illinois, North Carolina and the Northeast in the United States, the United Kingdom, Ireland and Germany in Europe, and in Asian pharmaceutical groups in India and China.
While corporations like FedEx Corp. et United Parcel Service Inc. invest in frozen spaces, there are considerations about the solution of the “last mile” of distribution, especially in remote and occasionally poor spaces that are difficult to access with excessive cooling, from -20 to -80 degrees Celsius (-4 to -12 degrees Fahrenheit) that will be needed.
During some sections of the vaccine journey, electric energy will be available for refrigeration and battery-powered refrigerators, but at other stages, however, the survival of the doses will have dry ice packed in boxes, which will pose a variety of risks. adding untimely thawing to protection problems for manipulators due to fumes emitted by sublimation.
The complexity of the project can simply exert such wonderful tension in the logistics industry that it can only require the power of the military, through a government like the US Civil Reserve Air Fleet. A program established in 1951 after the Berlin Air Bridge that allows the Pentagon to use advertising aircraft for national security reasons.
COLD AISLE
“This is a launch of the iPhone 12 with steroids,” said Neel Jones Shah, global head of air relations at San Francisco-based Flexport Forwarder and director of Tiaca. “I would still say that the confidence in our preparation may be 6. 5 out of 10. “
This cautious optimism may grow as more and more corporations interfere to help. Among the leaders in bloodless chain cooling is Thermo King, a component of Trane Technologies Plc, a commercial equipment manufacturer based in Dublin. the bloodless room that the logistics industry seeks to install.
“We seek to make all our capacity available,” said Francesco Incalza, Thermo King’s European Chief Operating Officer. “When I hear, for example, that there is enough capacity in the chain of origin to carry 8 billion doses of vaccine, if organized, there is capacity. “
Do you have to get out of your chest? You can send us an email or let us know on our Facebook page or on Twitter @CrainsChicago.
More contacts
Frequently Asked Questions / Customer Service