The challenges of Covid-19 vaccine transport in the last mile

The transport of Covid-19 vaccines faces some unique challenges that go beyond the typical challenges of pharmaceutical companies.

Time

As soon as the first vaccine doses are available, they must be transported as quickly and safely as possible. Transportation (in large refrigerated containers or trucks) from the laboratory to the distribution centers is less of a challenge than distribution to the individual vaccination centers, doctors' offices, and hospitals. This is because the cold chain of the vaccine doses must be guaranteed at all times.

Capacity

New transport partners, new lanes, and innovative modes are increasing the shipment risk. For areas with good logistical infrastructure, this should be manageable but the challenges arise as the vaccines need to be shipped all around the globe.

Strict requirements

As the vaccines require an unbroken cold chain, a temperature of down to -80 °C must be guaranteed during the entire transport and storage period. Maintaining the temperature range requires the use of the correct transport and storage means.

The solution: Covid-19 vaccine shipment monitoring

What most vaccines have in common is that they are bound to an unbroken cold chain: Low-temperature data loggers are specifically designed for use with vaccines. These operate safely even under extreme conditions and can monitor the compliance to the preconditioned temperature ranges. If the temperature range exceeds, alarms will be automatically sent to the distributor.

The Covid-19 vaccine transports require thermal shippers which are specially manufactured for the transport of extremely sensitive temperature-controlled products. It must be prevented that the vaccines become unusable due to temperature excesses. For this purpose, mainly PCM elements and dry ice are used.

Tec4med’s solutions for temperature-controlled logistics are precisely where the challenges in cold chain logistics arise: Such as cool boxes, the devices for data recording, or the software for monitoring and maintaining temperature ranges.