Logistic and supply chain companies are deploying IoT tools for effective COVID-19 vaccine distribution 

Margaret Keenan, a 90-year-old woman became the first person to receive the shot of Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine in the UK, outside the trial. Over the past few weeks, pharmaceutical organizations such as Moderna, Pfizer and Oxford University have been relentlessly working on making their respective COVID-19 vaccines effective. Through continual vaccine trials, they have claimed their respective vaccines to be effective against the COVID-19 pandemic. But still the pharmaceutical industry, vaccine developers and distributors are rendered to face the biggest challenge of the supply chain management of the vaccine. Internet of Things devices have come to the rescue.

Challenges of the Existing Pharmaceutical Supply Chain Module

The supply of COVID-19 vaccine is observed to be the greatest challenge that the world has ever witnessed. And while many are hopeful to succeed in this huge task, a major concern about global vaccine distribution is in maintaining temperature. All pharmaceutical drugs and vaccines are subjected to certain environmental temperature. A report by the International Air Transport Association states that a quarter of vaccines get degraded during logistics whereas 20% of the temperature-sensitive biopharmaceutical products including plasma gets damaged during cold-chain transport. The report by IATA also indicates that every year US$15.2 billion gets lost due to the lost product costs of medicinal drugs.

With the existing challenges of the pharmaceutical industry, the supply chain of the COVID-19 vaccine requires an agile and efficient module for effective distribution of the vaccine. Henceforth, many logistic and supply chain organizations are readily deploying IoT-enabled tools for monitoring and maintaining the temperature of COVID-19 vaccine.

Romabee

Roambee is a logistic company, which has proactively leveraged the Internet of Things (IoT) enabled temperature sensors to monitor the global supply chain of the COVID-19 vaccine. The company measures and monitors the temperature during transportation and on the arrival of the vaccine using the passive data loggers. With real-time analysis, the company flags off alert in case the temperature of the vaccine drops significantly. The company is already working for the Pfizer vaccine distribution and has been accredited to be the most favored logistic company globally.

Cloudleaf

Cloudleaf is another supply chain company that is prepping for accurate and effective COVID-19 vaccine distribution. Through the data-driven IoT sensors incorporated in bluetooth, the company addresses the blind spots within the supply chain to mitigate losses from missed handoffs, theft, product spoilage, retesting and compliance issues. Additionally, its IoT sensors allow continuous real-time data synchronization and streaming, thus monitoring the location and condition of vaccine during transportation. It eliminates write-off and physical counting with continuous automated asset tracking. The company uses artificial intelligence for predicting the anomalies, monitoring shock and accessing the real-time insights for audits, compliance and sustainable initiatives.

Wrapping Up

Instituting IoT enabled devices and sensors across the supply chain of COVID-19 vaccine would aid in the strategic distribution of the vaccine. As countries have already reserved the stock of the prescribed drug, proactively managing the logistics and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines becomes imperative.

The IoT software and services in the pharmaceutical industry is forecast to grow from US$420 million in 2015 to US$2.5 billion by 2020, at a CAGR of 42.7% from 2016 to 2020.