Securing Trust In The Global Covid 19 Vaccine Supply Chain

Global Distribution Of The Covid-19 Vaccine

A key success factor to securing our world against Covid -19 is ensuring the right people get the right vaccine at the right time. Failure to do so will allow COVID-19 to remain at large, with those most in need living in low- and middle-income countries likely to lose out.

The question that countries need to ask is, how best can we distribute the vaccine to the right populations promptly and efficiently? Under the WHO ACT-Accelerator framework, countries will initially receive doses for 3%, then 20% of the population, ultimately scaling up to full coverage.

Although more detailed guidance is forthcoming on who the 20% should be, it will be up to individual governments to work out who and where the health workers and key at-risk populations are.

A lack of robust and comprehensive health information systems in countries with less developed systems will make it difficult for many countries to work this out.

Equitable distribution

Planning for vaccine distribution and the identification of vulnerable populations needs to be transparent to ensure that access is equitable and that citizens understand who will receive vaccines, and who won’t. Transparency is also key to ensure that access, or lack of access, is not used to the detriment of marginalized populations, or to foster political patronage

Distributing vaccines needs careful preparation and has never been done before at a pace presenting an unprecedented global challenge. The COVAX Facility is designed to ensure there is equitable access to vaccines globally, but the demand is massive. Complicating things further, most national vaccine distribution systems are designed to ensure that children receive their full immunization schedule — not for large-scale adult vaccination programs.

In addition, cold chain — refrigerated storage required to preserve the vaccine — requirements may also be different for the COVID vaccine.

UNICEF and others have begun to work on this, and plan to have 65,000 solar cold-chain fridges in place in lower-income countries by the end of 2021, but more work is needed if vaccines are to reach those in need in remote and difficult to reach locations like Somalia or Sudan.

In many such countries, the private sector is a — or the — major provider of health care. Working through who and where the best partners for delivering the vaccine will vary from country to country and inevitably will pose challenges.

The risks: Corruption and Diversion of Vaccines

Whilst most vaccines have little street value, initially limited supplies of a COVID-19 vaccine — compounded by a likely high demand from anxious populations — will make it a target for theft and diversion.

Many countries lack what the World Health Organization considers to be well-functioning and integrated medicines regulatory systems, making it more likely that substandard and falsified vaccines will appear in the market. The impact of these could be devastating, fuelling scepticism and distrust, worsening the pandemic, and ultimately costing lives.

According to reports by BBC, China arrested the leader of a multi-million dollar scam that passed off saline solution and mineral water as Covid-19 vaccine. The man, identified as Kong, had researched the packaging designs of real vaccines before making more than 58,000 of his own concoctions.

A batch of the vaccines was smuggled overseas, but it is not known where they were sent to.

Kong is among 70 people who have been arrested for similar crimes.

The arrests, involving more than 20 cases, came as Beijing vowed to crack down on fraudulent vaccines.

How to get this right  

New report supports the adoption of GS1 standards and barcode implementation to ensure safety and trust in Covid-19 vaccination

While many countries have begun to plan for distribution, we need to ensure that this is done in a way that builds trust and consensus. National allocation frameworks and distribution plans should be developed transparently. The Ministry of Health must also be transparent and engage with citizens to ensure that prioritization of vulnerable groups is fair, and does not leave room for corruption or manipulation.

Safeguards must be put in place to protect supply chains from theft and diversion to the black market.

Deloitte white paper highlights why common standards across the healthcare supply chain are essential as the world gears up for the largest deployment of vaccines in history

The Deloitte study; Securing Trust in the Global COVID-19 Supply Chain, argues that, in addition to industry collaboration and transparent communication, embracing GS1 standards adds an element of trust at all levels of the supply chain – a trust that ultimately extends to the patients themselves. GS1 global standards enable pharmaceutical manufacturers, distributing companies, and healthcare providers to follow protocols and safety measures critical to ensuring public trust and confidence, both in the vaccine itself and the ability to roll out vaccinations safely. Barcodes carrying GS1 standards uniquely and securely identify medical products, including vaccines, from laboratories and clinical trials to point of administration. GS1 standards bring transparency and help to improve supply chain coordination, decreasing the risk of vaccine diversion, date expiration, and fake vaccine proliferation.

While the adoption of GS1 standards continues to expand in the healthcare field, they are not yet universally applied. The Deloitte study calls vaccine identification information (such as product identifier, lot number, and expiration date) “essential for healthcare providers to administer vaccines with confidence,” noting that, “the WHO recommends that all vaccines be identified with this data in a standardised barcode.” GAVI and UNICEF have also required the use of GS1 standards on the secondary packages of vaccines.