Recent announcements about Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna and AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine positive results brought the logistics issues to the forefront. Each movement along the supply chain is important, and freight forwarders are the linchpins, ensuring vaccines go door-to-door while maintaining their temperature. That means staying cold. In the case of Pfizer’s vaccine candidate, very, very cold.
“We refer to this as the biggest product launch in the history of mankind,” said Neel Jones Shah, Flexport’s head of airfreight, referring to coronavirus vaccines. “This is the top end of complexity of anything we’ve ever done before.”
But with billions of people to inoculate globally, freight forwarders don’t feel ready for this challenge.
“The industry as a whole is not prepared or doesn’t feel comfortable with the type of requirements thrust upon them,” said Jones Shah.
A September survey from The International Air Cargo Association (TIACA) and Pharma.Aero showed only 28% of companies involved in supply chain logistics felt well prepared to handle these vaccines.
Part of that is because pharmaceutical companies are keeping some requirements close to the vest, said Jones Shah, a TIACA board member. But a lot of information is still unknown: exact temperatures for each vaccine’s transit, manufacturing sites, needed transportation modes, vaccine destination, and numbers of doses/pallets to ship at any given time.
“As we get new pieces of information, we’re able to add more specificity to the plan about how it will get moved from A to B,” Jones Shah said.
“This is the top end of complexity of anything we’ve ever done before.”
Pfizer, the first company to announce its positive interim results, will use DHL, FedEx and UPS to deliver its vaccines via truck and plane, in reusable containers topped off with dry ice, that can maintain the temperature at minus 70 degrees Celsius.
Pfizer said the vaccines will be shipped directly from the manufacturing site to the vaccination site. The company is bypassing distribution by McKesson, the government’s appointed distributor for Operation Warp Speed.
The devil is in the details
Vaccine transport is nothing new to freight forwarders who work with pharma — the difference is the high volume of vaccines to distribute, and the low temperatures of COVID-19 vaccines like Pfizer’s.
“Freight forwarders coordinate the entire move. There’s not one company that typically controls all access to do that,” Jones Shah said. ”Freight forwarders are the glue that connects all the asset owners together.” Pharmaceutical companies can then focus on what they do best: manufacture therapeutics, not manage logistics.
Pfizer is not using the typical distribution route, in that it is taking control itself. The company does not plan on building inventory, and figures it can get vaccines to their destinations faster by working directly. In avoiding additional loads and unloads at distribution sites, it can better maintain the temperature of the frozen product.
“The colder the storage requirement, the more complicated the logistics.”
Pfizer’s most recent projections are to produce 50 million vaccines by end of 2020, and up to 1.3 billion in 2021. That’s one manufacturer. By comparison, 175 million flu vaccine doses were distributed in the U.S. during the 2019-2020 flu season, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The equipment needed to transport vaccines globally varies widely depending on the numbers used in forecasting dosages in each vial and inoculations per person (one versus two).
A model developed by Seabury/Accenture and Kuehne + Nagel estimates needing fewer than 1,000 full 747 freighters, if the vaccines are transported at 2-8 degrees Celsius, with multiple doses per vial, said Robert Coyle, SVP of Kuehne + Nagel’s pharma and healthcare vertical.
The International Air Transport Association estimates 8,000 full 747 flights for a single dose vaccine for 7.8 billion people.
A DHL analysis estimates up to 200,000 pallets, 15 million deliveries in cooling boxes, and 15,000 flights for 10 billion doses.
The cold chain is a big challenge. Moderna’s solution can remain stable at 2-8 degrees Celsius, the temperature of a standard refrigerator, for up to 30 days and can be stored for six months at minus 20 degrees Celsius, standard freezer temperature. Pharmaceutical distribution companies have this capability now.
Conversely, Pfizer’s product must be transported and stored at minus 70 degrees Celsius.That’s so cold that there is not ample deep freezer capacity.
“The colder the storage requirement, the more complicated the logistics,” said David Goldberg CEO of DHL Global Forwarding USA.
Pfizer designed its own packaging, which will use dry ice to maintain storage without needing specialized appliances.
The U.S. is experiencing dry ice shortages as well. Why? Blame the decrease in ethanol production, with fewer cars on the road. Dry ice is a byproduct of that process.
“You can’t stockpile [dry ice] because it evaporates. We’re working with manufacturers to make sure we have sufficient capacity,” Goldberg said.
UPS announced Tuesday it is expanding dry ice production capacity to 1,200 pounds per hour in the U.S. and Canada.
Keeping vaccines cold during flights
Airplanes have limitations for how much dry ice can go on an airplane. “It turns into carbon dioxide when it sublimates. You can’t pack an airplane full of dry ice — it’s harmful for the crew,” said Jones Shah.
Vaccines in a 2-8 degree Celsius temperature range, like Moderna’s and AstraZeneca’s, don’t need dry ice. The vials may be sent in a temperature-controlled container that holds a battery charge and keeps the contents at a consistent temperature. The container’s battery is then recharged on arrival.
Post time: Sep-15-2021