2020 has been a year full of uncertainties, massive disruptions in healthcare systems, and economic downturns for the entire world. Although people have started living with the pandemic and come to terms with the new normal of wearing masks, using sanitizers, social distancing, and working from homes, the world desperately awaits an effective life-saver vaccine that can end this COVID-19 world crisis.
Scientists around the world are working hard to find a successful vaccine by early 2021. As summarized by the WHO, there are at least 125 different vaccination research projects underway for the prevention of COVID-19, as of 1st November 2020. Researchers are testing 50 vaccines in clinical trials on humans, and at least 87 preclinical vaccines are under active investigation on animals.
However, the real challenge is not the development of a vaccine alone. Once a vaccine is approved by global healthcare authorities, there will be a sudden surge in the demand for sufficient supplies as well as fast and equitable distribution of the vaccine to the masses.
Healthcare systems, governments, and public welfare institutions across the globe are well aware of this humongous challenge ahead of them and have started strategizing distribution operations for when the vaccine is actually available. However, it is no news that there are some huge gaps in the global supply chain and the world is not fully equipped to handle the vaccine distribution task smoothly.
Vaccines are heat-sensitive and need to be stored at a specific temperature range in warehouses and during transportation. Even slight fluctuations in the storage temperature can render these life-saving drugs ineffective for consumption. The WHO estimates that half the vaccines made globally are lost to wastage, either from heat exposure or broken vials in transit.
Vaccines may be manufactured on one continent and shipped to another. Air cargo plays a crucial role in the distribution of vaccines across international borders, respecting temperature-sensitive distribution protocols, and ensuring fast transportation of the vaccines. However, according to The International Air Cargo Association (TIACA), only 28 percent of the industry is well prepared for vaccine transportation via air cargo.
The last-mile logistics of vaccine distribution is the most crucial step in vaccine administration and varies depending on the population to be vaccinated and the facilities available in different geographies. Experts believe that last-mile distribution is a potential quality killer. The journey from frozen warehouses to the hospitals, pharmacies, or medical camps often causes temperature instabilities rendering the vaccine impotent.
Moreover, there is a clear lack of transparency and visibility in the distribution chain for authorities to keep track of how the vaccine is transported within states, cities, and towns, and to whom it is being distributed.
Given the number of logistical bottlenecks and gaps in the vaccine distribution supply chain, there is an urgent need for a robust cold chain infrastructure and a systematic logistics strategy for the successful distribution of the vaccine to the public. Manual planning of cold-storage warehouses, network designs, and last-mile administration is not enough to take on this challenge, and digitization of the vaccine supply chain is a must, now more than ever before.
Logistics planning and supply chain optimization platform Locus has proposed a two-layer distribution model for the COVID-19 vaccine for the United States. Locus’ Network Optimization Algorithm has been deployed on the US population spread across individual zip codes to arrive at five mother warehouse locations and 26 regional warehouse locations for optimal distribution of the vaccine to every American citizen.
The pressure on the global supply chain is immense to ensure that the whole world receives the immunization shots as early as possible. The implementation of logistics tech and digitization of operations can fill the gaps in the vaccine distribution chain, helping governments and healthcare organizations around the world successfully accomplish the mammoth task of the COVID-19 vaccine distribution.
Read the full report here to learn more about Locus’ detailed two-layer vaccine distribution and network optimization model.