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LOGISTICS & DISTRIBUTION
Safe travels
Why delivering Covid-19 vaccines is the logistics industry’s biggest challenge.
T
he sheer speed of developing and gaining regulatory approval for effective vaccines against Covid-19 has been unprecedented. Transporting them rapidly and safely from manufacturing sites to vaccination centres and doctors’ surgeries across the world is possibly the biggest challenge the logistics industry has ever faced.
and in some cases temperaturecritical product on such a huge scale creates considerable operational challenges. Many pharma companies and global carriers have turned to supply chain technologies including sophisticated parcel transportation management software to help ensure vaccines get to where they need to be in good time.
More than a dozen different vaccines have now been authorised for use in various countries, with several more in Phase 3 trials anticipating roll outs in 2021. Pfizer has stated its intention to produce up to 1.3 billion doses of its Covid-19 vaccine in 2021, whilst Moderna projects between 600 million and 1 billion doses in the same period. A total predicted capacity of 10 billion doses globally in 2021 means the magnitude of the task is clear. Managing global distribution strategies for a time-sensitive
Planning for such an immense logistical undertaking started as early as April 2020. Since then, Logistyx Technologies has worked with a number of pharmaceutical and life sciences customers and their carrier partners to help them plan ahead for the challenges of distributing vaccines worldwide. It was essential to kick off the process early, so they would be ready to go as soon as regulatory approval was granted. The preparations included choosing the right carriers to handle the specific requirements of different