More than half of vaccines go to waste globally every year because of temperature control, logistics and shipment-related issues.
Logistical hurdles are a significant risk for efforts to rapidly distribute COVID-19 vaccines, but they have resulted in booming business for companies such as private California-based Cloudleaf Inc, Germany’s SAP SE and others that sell technology for monitoring shipments from factory freezer to shot in the arm.
Cloudleaf, backed by Intel Capital, the venture arm of chipmaker Intel Corp, uses sensors attached to material containers to track location, temperature, humidity, vibration and acceleration.
The sensors send data to the cloud, where an artificial intelligence algorithm can predict if action is needed to prevent a product from becoming exposed to temperatures outside the recommended range, known as excursions.
Cloudleaf chief executive officer Mahesh Veerina said that orders have jumped 500 percent this year.
To keep pace, the firm had to grow its workforce and increase capital spending by as much as 80 percent, he said, adding that he expects similar growth in capital spending next year.
“I have CEOs calling and saying: ‘Hey, can we get this up in the next four to five weeks?’” Veerina said.
The booming business has also increased the need for fresh capital. Cloudleaf has raised millions of US dollars this year and has plans to raise “very significant” amounts of capital next year too, Veerina said.
Pfizer Inc and German partner BioNTech SE’s vaccine must be shipped and stored at ultra-cold temperatures, or on dry ice, and can only last at standard refrigerator temperatures for up to five days.
In contrast, Moderna Inc’s vaccine, which on Friday received US regulatory authorization, can be kept in a regular refrigerator for up to a month.
These varying requirements have increased the risks of logistical mishaps.
A quarter of all vaccines are degraded by the time they arrive at their destination due to incorrect shipping procedures, according to the International Air Transport Association.
Losses associated with temperature excursions in the healthcare industry are estimated at about US$35 billion annually.
Given the scale of the COVID-19 vaccine rollout, the losses could be significantly higher next year, analysts said.
At least two trays of COVID-19 vaccine doses delivered in California needed to be replaced after their storage temperatures dipped below minus-80°C, US Army General Gustave Perna said on Wednesday.
Blockchain and sensor-enabled cold chain monitoring tools can help reduce the losses, and mitigate the risks of theft or counterfeiting of the vaccines.
Moderna is using SAP’s digital solutions to help serialize and distribute its vaccine. The applications are designed to prevent counterfeit medicines and enable collaboration with contract manufacturers and wholesalers.
Similarly, Israeli start-up Varcode Ltd, which makes smart tags that measure time and temperature, and can track and trace products throughout the supply chain, has seen a multifold jump in orders.
Before the pandemic, the orders for Varcode’s tags would range between 100,000 to 1 million units.
Since the middle of this year, some of the companies involved in the vaccine distribution have been asking for billions of tags, Varcode chief executive officer Joe Battoe said.
This, in turn, has led to a 200 percent increase in Varcode’s capital spending this year.
Battoe said that the pandemic had “been good for our business.”
Varcode’s low-cost cloud-based, blockchain-enabled technology sends out alerts when a product goes outside its prescribed temperature range, and captures the cumulative time the product has been outside of the temperature range.
Its smart tags are serialized and need just a smart phone to scan them. Every scan leaves a digital trail, reducing the risks of theft or counterfeiting.
The tags can track individual vials, making them a better fit for the vaccine distribution in small and rural areas which might require fewer than the minimum order of doses.
Varcode’s tags are produced in Israel, but the soaring demand has prompted it to invest in a unique printer and an applicator that would generate the tags on site where the vaccines are being manufactured and apply them to carts going down the conveyor belt in real time.
The US$5 billion global cold chain monitoring technology market could grow 50 percent next year, thanks to the vaccine rollout, Battoe said.
“I don’t think we would be garnering the attention ... had it not been for the scale and the sensitivity of these vaccines,” he said.
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