Vaccine readiness
Once a serum to help keep the outbreak of Covid-19 at bay has been developed, then its distribution will present the next major challenge. The need for the strict temperature control in the concomitant services could well put the brakes on rapid distribution.
Many a pharmaceutical enterprise worldwide is currently conducting research into the production of a serum to counter the Covid-19 virus. It isn’t clear yet when the first one will be available, nor how effective it might be. What is clear, in contrast, however, is that the distribution of the vaccines to every corner of the world will be a major logistics feat.
Now the logistics service provider DHL and the US management consultancy McKinsey have presented a comprehensive study addressing, amongst other things, the distribution of such a vaccine, and other matters from the rather broad field of pharmaceuticals transport.
Cooled to a freezing –80°C
The short development times of the vaccines may mean that logistics firms may face extremely demanding stipulations concerning transportation temperatures, maybe having to offer services that are cooled to –80°C. This would ensure that the serum’s effectiveness would not be impaired by its transport or storage.
In a conventional scenario the vaccines would be transported at temperatures of +2–8°C, as is usual in most pharmaceutical supply chains today. This approach will only be feasible once enough experience has been gathered and stability data is available, however.
Demand will be global and gigantic from the moment a usable serum hits the market. We can thus once more expect the airfreight industry to play a key role in combatting the outbreak of Covid-19. No less than 15,000 flights carrying 200,000 pallets may be necessary to achieve global coverage in the next two years.
15 million boxes for 10 billion vaccines
Even though these are daunting figures, the logistics of the operation would still be manageable, according to the authors of the study. The final legs of the distribution task would require substantially more effort, with the scenario assuming that 15 million reefer boxes will be needed to transport the 10 billion vaccines. Large numbers of cooling elements and quantities of dry rice would also be needed.
The more pessimistic scenario includes bottlenecks in the supply of suitable containers. The physical handling of the deep-frozen goods will also require special equipment as well as the right training.
The authors have looked at three supply chain models for the distribution of the vaccines. The fastest and most direct logistics model foresees direct deliveries. In this the vaccines are transported directly from the place of production and processing to the final destination, either on pallets or in boxes, carried by road or by air.
This approach makes sense for initial global distribution efforts, or later in small regions, or if the destinations concerned are close to the production plant.
Local cross-docking will see the pallets flown to their country of destination carrying parcel-sized reefer boxes, and then on-forwarded from there by lorry to their various final destinations. This distribution solution minimises delivery costs and is particularly well-suited to destinations in small regions, located relatively far away from the factory.
Parcel-sized units
The third model, entitled local warehousing, envisages the deployment of local storage and fulfilment capacities, in order to divide the freight on the pallets up into parcel-sized units for the last mile.This approach could prove a winner in large regions, and would represent a long-term solution, in case transporting the vaccines is subject to conventional temperature requirements.
