With the global community focused on the anticipated arrival of the COVID-19 vaccine, the pharmaceutical cold chain logistics industry is under pressure to execute an unprecedented worldwide distribution effort. The figures are staggering: Pfizer intends to produce up to 50 million doses worldwide in 2020, followed by up to 1.3 billion in 2021, while Moderna expects to manufacture approximately 20 million doses in 2020 and 500 million to one billion in 2021. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) estimates that it will take the equivalent of 8,000 Boeing 747 flights to carry enough single-dose vaccinations to inoculate the globe’s 7.8 billion people—a monumental task.

Given the low temperature requirements of many vaccines, the logistics community—especially air cargo services—is facing a rigorous cold chain transportation challenge, coupled with a high degree of scrutiny by manufacturers and governments to ensure that the vaccines are delivered efficiently, effectively, and safely.

Shipment visibility challenges

Air cargo has historically been the optimal choice for moving high-velocity, high-value goods such as pharmaceuticals but the complex chain of custody invites a range of issues. With more than eight hand-offs before the vaccine reaches the end consumer—including manufacturers, logistics service providers (LSP), ground handling agents (GHA), air carriers, last mile distributors, and medical professionals—the temperature-sensitive COVID-19 vaccines will be subjected to multiple touchpoints across disparate data collection systems.

Unfortunately, traditional data logging doesn’t deliver the seamless visibility required to enable manufacturers or LSPs to make decisions about pharmaceutical shipments in transit. Without real-time visibility into shipment location and status across the entire supply chain, vaccines can be subjected to degradation, diversion, and even loss. In fact, IATA reported that 25% of all vaccines are degraded when they reached their destination due to improper shipping, while 20% of temperature-sensitive products are damaged during transport due to a broken cold chain.

Air cargo logistics providers must ensure that Pfizer’s vaccines are transported and stored at negative 70 degrees Celsius, while the Moderna and Astra Zeneca vaccines can remain stable between two and eight degrees Celsius. With so much at stake, how are pharmaceutical logistics leaders ensuring the integrity of the cold chain?

The tracking transformation

Recent Internet of Things (IoT) advancements have transformed the landscape of the pharmaceutical supply chain to provide seamless end-to-end location tracking and monitoring. Next-generation sensor-based tracking tags attached to shipments provide a range of real-time data (e.g., location, temperature, humidity, light) to determine the status of goods and if conditions are deteriorating and/or intervention is required.

Adding further resiliency to the tracking and data capture process, low-cost mesh networks can be deployed across the logistics chain in airports, air cargo stations, loading/unloading docks, etc. to automatically capture the movement and status of shipments. Data is transmitted from multiple nodes to active gateways to provide overlapping coverage and close any visibility gaps.

Simplifying the process

While the combined solution of next-generation tracking tag technology and mesh networks offers full visibility into a vaccine’s distribution journey, pharmaceutical supply chain participants must have a way to access this critical shipment data. The solution? The humble smartphone, mobile apps, and the cloud.

Mobile applications accessed via smartphones ensure a truly door-to-door tracking process. The ubiquitous smartphone provides great flexibility for capturing data, receiving or delivering shipments, or interrogating shipment status on demand, from the initial handoff of the vaccine from manufacturer to LSP through multiple touchpoints across air carriers, GHAs, and last mile delivery. In addition, mobile apps remove barriers to entry, as organizations of any size can easily download a mobile tracking app to participate in the pharmaceutical cold chain.

A cloud-based tracking platform provides a common repository that unifies end-to-end tracking data from all parties involved to ensure supply chain transparency. By eliminating data silos, all participants in the cold chain can monitor the location and condition of a shipment and use that data to make informed decisions.

Working together

Given the number of participants in the pharmaceutical supply chain, plus the global nature of vaccine manufacturing and distribution, interoperability is critical. Deploying open architecture technologies provides flexibility, accessibility, and scalability—enabling multiple parties to participate. Notably, the new breed of recyclable IoT-enabled tracking tags is logistics-chain-centric, unlike the traditional company-centric tracking technologies that limited the ability to share data across the supply chain.

Delivering billions of doses of COVID-19 vaccines to the world’s population is perhaps the largest single transportation challenge the air cargo industry will ever face. By deploying common tracking technology, promoting open network connectivity, and standardizing data for a true end-to-end view, the cold chain logistics community will help to ensure a safe, secure, and efficient supply chain that will meet the upcoming challenges and set the standard for pharmaceutical supply chains going forward.