LOGISTICS
Using logistics to get vaccines to patients
Producing a vaccine is only one step towards getting it to a patient. The pharmaceutical industry, with its strict requirements for product security and stability, has one of the most complex logistical chains in the world, as economic analyst Francisco E Rizzuto explains.
are ruled by a unique set of procedures and standards. And to protect patients from unsafe medical products, the World Health Organization says it is critical that no weak link exists in the supply chain and that transport and storage need to demonstrate unbroken steps.
G It is the responsibility of all stakeholders
involved in the supply chain to ensure that every medicine completes its journey safely and on time, and that vaccines are handled with the utmost care. Transporting any type of vaccine is no easy task. Every shipment of these specialised medications requires strict temperature management and can be worth up to €50 million. And it’s not just the medicines themselves that can be costly. Although logistics is only one step in the pharma supply chain, these shipping processes can represent nearly 40% of total operating expenses. To guarantee that all medical cargo arrives safely and reliably, the supply chain stakeholders are required to monitor each shipment until it reaches its destination – whether that’s a distribution facility, a hospital or a doctor. And before the journey, an assessment must be done, anticipating any possible risks, and coordinating trucks, aeroplanes and last-mile- delivery individual couriers in order to meet manufacturers, customs offices and regulatory agencies. Every movement during the journey is tightly monitored.
Modern pharmaceuticals follow two key control processes. Good manufacturing practices (GMP) help to ensure product quality, with
etting medicines to where they are needed requires a hugely complex transport effort. Medical shipments
a defined process for each medicine. These practices also aim to guarantee that a product is of the highest quality when it leaves the warehouse and enters the supply chain. And good distribution practices, or GDPs, ensure the integrity of the product all along the way. For pharmaceutical companies, these GDP requirements are highly controlled under corporate compliance and strictly required by their logistics partners.
As mentioned, although healthcare logistics is only one step in the pharmaceutical supply chain, it can be 40% of total operating expenses, compared to 5% for the retail industry, and 2% for electronics. During every step in the supply chain, product conditions must be maintained and monitored. A medicine generally passes through at least 10 different stakeholders from the time it is manufactured to the time a patient receives it. A failure in the chain is damaging to any product, but particularly to highly temperature-sensitive medicines such as vaccines.
Managing a global pharmaceutical supply chain is highly complicated, and it requires strategic thinking at every step and the ability to anticipate unforeseen events. The important thing for pharmaceutical logistics is who needs to be in the process to maintain product security and stability and, at the end of the day, patient safety. Even small changes can have a tremendous impact.
Francisco E Rizzuto MBA is an economic analyst with 28 years’ experience in international cargo transportation and global freight logistics, specializing in the international transportation of temperature-controlled pharmaceuticals.
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