Delivering vaccines to entire populations – especially in the developing world – has placed tremendous pressure on the supply chain.According to Sean Petzer of TOWER Cold Chain Solutions, logistics operators have had to pull out all the stops to deliver vaccines that require long-term storage at -70°C.“Even for vaccines that require storage at -20 °C, which is already much more doable, it has not been easy. Distribution of vaccines that require ultra-low temperatures is an exceptionally complex undertaking,” he told Freight News.In South Africa the process has not been easy, with vaccines coming in at short notice, while political machinations have resulted in the changing of goalposts several times.Logistics experts agree that this does not make it any easier to deliver cold chain solutions – especially not at an affordable cost.Petzer said he believed that logistics operators involved in distribution across the country were doing the best they could under the circumstances.“In an ideal world logistics operators and cold chain experts would have been involved in the entire decision-making process from the beginning, but realistically speaking that is not always possible.”With most of the vaccines distributed in South Africa being imported, the need for large-scale cold chain storage has become very apparent.“Another option, for example, could have been to rather pick and pack for key requirements at origin as opposed to importing cold chain product in bulk,” explained Petzer. Around the world logistics operators have found themselves playing catch up, trying to produce the correct volumes of containers and build up capacity and the required infrastructure.Many lessons have been learnt and the process is already far more f luid than it was in the beginning. “This has by far been the greatest undertaking in the cold chain logistics sector the world has ever seen,” said Petzer.The World Health Organization has maintained that supply chain readiness remains key to deploying vaccines efficiently.Due to the variations in the storage temperature requirements of the different Covid-19 vaccines, cold chain capacity varies from country to country.“The challenges we are facing in South Africa, for example, are very different from those being faced in Kenya,” said Petzer.He added that companies such as TOWER continued to look at expanding their footprint and capacity to meet the growing need for cold chain solutions.TOWER recently announced the opening of its Mumbai hub through its partnership with EFL (Expolanka Freight). Mumbai, known as the pharmacy of the world, produces more than 60% of the world’s biologics and is central to the pharmaceutical industry of India. With most of the vaccines distributed in South Africa being imported, the need for large-scale cold chain storage has become very apparent.– Sean Petzer