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Logistics professionals are preparing to transport billions of doses of covid-19 vaccines quickly and safely, after they are prepared in the fight against the novel SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, juggling equations with unknown multiples, AFP reports.
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HOW MANY VACCINES WILL BE NECESSARY?
According to the International Federation of the Pharmaceutical Industry (IFPMA), between 12 and 15 billion doses would be produced worldwide, News.ro informs.
“Current models predict that there won’t be enough vaccines to cover the world’s population by 2023 or 2024,” estimates Duke University in the United States, which oversees the emerging market for about 200 candidate vaccines.
WILL ALL VACCINES BE DELIVERED AT THE SAME TIME?
Laboratories prepare two types of vaccines. Some – such as Pfizer and BioNTech – require very low storage temperatures – down to -80 ° C -, while others will be stored at more conventional temperatures – between 2 and 8 ° C.
The first type, which is particularly difficult to transport, “will cover up to 30% of the doses that will be distributed in the world”, estimates the director of the Ceva general logistics group (CMA-CGM group), Mathieu Friedberg.
The remaining 70% of the second type “requires specific logistics. It’s in the pharmaceutical field, so it’s more sensitive, but it’s less technical than -80 ° C, “he says.
WILL THEY BE TRANSPORTED BY PLANE?
Mathieu Friedberg believes that half of the vaccines will be transported by road from the production site – Pfizer and Moderna would subcontract part of their production in France – to the storage site and then to the vaccination centers.
The other half requires, in his opinion, a logistics that combines air and land.
It all depends on the distance and the urgency of sending the products.
HOW WILL AIR TRANSPORT BE ORGANIZED?
“It will take some kind of airlift,” said Glyn Hughes, cargo manager at the International Air Transport Association (IATA). A single dose to carry for each inhabitant of the planet would be equivalent to 8,000 large cargo planes, according to him.
To give you an idea of the volume, Air France’s 99 long-haul passenger planes can each carry more than 400,000 doses in the hold, and the French company’s two Boeing 777s could carry more than a million doses.
“Passenger flights with hold capacity must increase,” said IATA Director General Alexandre de Juniac, who said “borders must be open to allow for distribution.”
Current air cargo capacity is insufficient to meet demand. The collapse of international air traffic has limited supply and 60% of the air cargo is carried in the hold of passenger aircraft.
HOW ARE THE CARRIERS ORGANIZED?
Task forces are established at all levels, working groups, both at the state level and in the profession and in enterprises.
Bolloré Logistics operates “in all segments”, says Sales Director Olivier Boccara, stating that he is targeting the situation in the packaging market by examining transport resources – in particular by conducting a census of land carriers capable of meeting the challenges – , analyzing airlines and shipments in terms of flow.
The laboratories are in a particular situation, being the ones that accredit the transporters.
“In this order, an institution or health authority of a country works with a laboratory, the laboratory certifies the supply chain, so it is he who does the work with its subcontractors so that this supply chain meets all the criteria “, summarizes Mathieu Friedberg.
WILL ALL BE READY?
“So far, many are unknown,” says the logistics company Geodis (SNCF group) – listing the quantities to be transported, at what temperature, what are the schedules, the distribution schemes.
But the logistics professionals contacted by AFP are unanimous and say they will be trained.
Logistics chains in the pharmaceutical industry usually go unnoticed, emphasizes Mathieu Friedberg, who notes that transport at -80 ° C already exists in organ transfer. “What is changing is the scale, in a relatively short time.”
With 150,000 refrigerated trucks, “France has one of the best cold transport chains in the world”, according to Chaîne logistique du froid. “The situation is complicated” for products that have to be stored at temperatures between -20 ° and -80 ° C, but the challenge “is not impossible” to face, says Jean-Eudes Tesson, president of this organization.
“The transport guidelines are not yet clear. It is therefore extremely difficult to tell customers whether these refrigerated containers are the most appropriate means of distributing the vaccine,” said Mike van Berkel of Dutch aviation container manufacturer VRR Aero.
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