Vaccine Logistics: Cold chain solution for Covid-19

Around 25% of vaccines are spoiled…

According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), around 25% of vaccines are spoiled and rendered useless upon arrival at the destination due to incorrect shipping procedures & other mishaps. Furthermore, losses associated with temperature excursions in the healthcare industry are estimated at about $35 billion annually. This can only be compounded when handling high spikes of demand within short timeframes. For example, a large number of vaccine doses for the Coronavirus strain COVID-19 delivered in California needed replacing due to a temperature excursion where their storage temperatures dipped below -80°C (-112°F).

UNICEF is planning to airlift 2 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines to more than 92 countries in 2021 on top of the regular vaccine programs. This is the biggest global emergency vaccine program ever, and significant logistical hurdles are proving a large risk factor in delivering these vaccines rapidly. Some of these vaccines can only be shipped and stored at temperatures far below freezing and use dry ice to maintain them. Another prominent logistical challenge is that they can only last a few days when stored at standard refrigerator temperatures. As a result of these requirements, the risks of logistical mishaps become significantly higher.

Monitoring these vaccines during logistics is mandatory to reduce the wastage and the losses of vaccines. The most hindering factor is the cost of monitoring, which today is over $75 to monitor only the temperature of a single shipment from manufacturer to patient. 95% of the industry use legacy data loggers, which are labor-intensive and have no real-time data. The other 5% use cellular-powered temperature monitors, which cost over $200 each.

This has opened the door to new markets where companies such as Hive-Zox International now offer technology to monitor shipments from production facilities all the way to the patient. Our devices use edge computing to determine when an item’s temperature has moved outside the recommended range, known as “excursions,” and send immediate alarms. All data are gathered and stored in our cloud, where our AI determines whether human intervention is required.

At Hive-Zox, we aim for all shipments to be monitored in real-time, which is why we minimize the cost and offer the possibility of True Real-Time data starting from €20 per shipment.

Hive-Zox offers modern-day logistics visibility with actual real-time data from sensors and location to make immediate decisions along the logistical flow for a cost that fits within the logistics budget.