DHL has launched international distribution of the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine with initial deliveries to Israel and flights to other countries to follow shortly.
DHL Express and DHL Global Forwarding operated several flights last week transporting hundreds of thousands of vaccine doses to Israel. DHL is not permitted to name the vaccine manufacturer but Israeli media said the vaccines were those made by Pfizer and BioNTech.
Mass inoculation is scheduled to start in Israel on December 27. The government has reportedly ordered eight million doses (enough for four million people) from Pfizer, with the first four million doses due to arrive in the country by the end of December.
Prime minister welcomes DHL plane
The first DHL Express aircraft, a B757F arriving from Brussels, touched down at Ben-Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv last Wednesday (December 9) and was received by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
DHL Global Forwarding also dedicated a charter flight for additional supplies of vaccine doses, which arrived at Ben-Gurion airport on December 10. More charter flights will follow.
Netanyahu told local media that he “would be the first” to get a vaccine jab in order to set an example to the population. The Times of Israel cited him as saying: “What’s important to me is that people of Israel get vaccinated. I believe in this vaccine. I want the people of Israel to get vaccinated and so I will be first.”
The newspaper explained that a national vaccine storage and distribution center has been set up in the southern Negev desert region, where the vaccine doses will be warehoused and then sent around the country.
Other countries to follow
In addition to the first flights to Israel, DHL said it is preparing to carry out further flights to other countries in December and beyond with vaccines from its worldwide operating hubs.
A company spokesperson told CEP-Research that DHL is not currently able to provide any further details of its forthcoming vaccine distribution operations.
However, earlier this month a Pfizer spokesperson told CEP-Research that DHL and FedEx would be responsible for distribution in Europe while UPS and FedEx would handle distribution in the USA. The two US companies launched distribution across the USA last weekend following the vaccine’s emergency use approval there.
The Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine is currently approved for (emergency) use in the UK (where inoculation started last week), the US and Canada (where it started this week) along with Singapore and Bahrain. EU authorities are due to take a decision in late December.
A silver lining for the world
“After numerous months of preparation, we are happy that our mission of vaccine distribution has now started and we could contribute our logistics expertise and capabilities to make vaccine accessible worldwide,” said Travis Cobb, Head of Global Network Operations and Aviation at DHL Express.
“The current crisis has shown how indispensable international logistics networks are for ensuring that societies have the necessary personal protective equipment and test kits to secure their health. Now we are embarking on the next step in our common fight against the coronavirus. Our teams across 220 countries and territories and our global network as the backbone of cross-border Express logistics is ready – to deliver anytime and anywhere.”
“The development of a Coronavirus vaccine is a silver lining, and we are proud to play an active role as the most global logistics provider in bringing this silver lining to people,” commented Thomas Mack, Head of Global Airfreight, DHL Global Forwarding. “With our extensive logistics expertise in the Life Sciences & Healthcare sector paired with the commitment and passion of our people we want to play our part in making the Corona pandemic history. That’s the purpose of Deutsche Post DHL Group – connecting people and improving lives.”
Dedicated healthcare logistics services
Alongside its global air network, DHL also underlined its healthcare logistics capabilities to handle worldwide distribution of the life-saving COVID-19 vaccines. More than 9,000 specialists work across its dedicated global network so that pharmaceutical, medical devices, clinical trials and research organizations, wholesalers and distributors, as well as hospitals and healthcare providers are connected across the value chain and through digitalization, from clinical trials to point of care, and every step in between.
DHL’s portfolio for the healthcare industry includes 150+ pharmacists, 20+ clinical trials depots, 100+ certified stations, 160+ GDP-qualified warehouses, 15+ GMP-certified sites and 135+ medical express sites.
Historic global challenge
DHL explained that, on a global scale, logistics providers are challenged to establish a medical supply chain rapidly to deliver vaccines of unprecedented amount of more than 10bn doses worldwide – also in regions with less developed logistics infrastructures, where ~3bn people live. To provide global coverage of the next two years, up to 200k pallet shippers and 15m cooling boxes as well as 15,000 flights will be required across the various supply chain setups, according to its estimates.
With vaccines historically developed over a timeline of 5~20 years, the accelerated process of COVID-19 within one year is unprecedented. As COVID-19 vaccines have leapfrogged development phases, stringent temperature requirements (up to -80°C) are likely to be imposed for certain vaccines to ensure the effectiveness of the vaccines during transportation and warehousing, the company underlined.
