The race against the virus: DHL white paper update reveals learnings from one year into COVID-19

• Involving over 350
  facilities, DHL distributed more than 200 million vaccine doses to over 120
  countries to date
• From
  2022 onward, a further 7-9 billion doses of
  vaccines are necessary annually to keep (re-)infection rates low and slow down
  the pace of virus mutations
• Locally adapted
  last-mile delivery, distribution models and a constant stock of vaccines will
  continue to be critical beyond 2021

BONN, GERMANY – Media OutReach – 18 May 2021 – It has been more than a year since the world woke up
to the news of the new SARS-COV-2 virus. What followed was the largest global
health crisis in 100 years. The disruptions to every aspect of society have
been profound. Logistics and supply chain management have played a vital role
in pandemic management right from the start to ensure the availability and
distribution of key pandemic management tools: medicines and medical supplies,
such as vaccines, test kits, ancillary supplies, treatments, and personal
protective equipment (PPE). With over 200 million doses of all approved
vaccines distributed to over 120 countries and 9,000 operated flights in which
more than 350 DHL facilities were involved, DHL was part of the response
strategy from the beginning. Over 50 bilateral and multilateral collaborations
with partners in both the pharma and public sector and several new dedicated
services were created to stem this task. The recently published DHL white paper
on “Revisiting Pandemic Resilience” takes one step back and sheds light into
what the sector has learned from the race against COVID-19 to be best prepared
to handle public health emergencies in the future.

“Logistics and supply chain management play a key role
in pandemic management. Keeping supply chains running and ensuring delivery for
essential health supplies provided valuable lessons”, explains Katja Busch,
Chief Commercial Officer DHL. “We rolled out new dedicated services for the
vaccine distribution at unprecedented speed. All sectors, industries, and
nations must work together to successfully end the acute phase of this
pandemic. Forming strong partnerships and leveraging data analytics will be key.
We also need to remain prepared for high patient and vaccine volumes, maintain
logistics infrastructure and capacity, while planning for seasonal fluctuations
by providing a stable and well-equipped platform for the years to come.”

There are important achievements across research and
development, production, and supply chain management as well as policy that
will help us get through the crisis as a global community. The foundation of
this was laid by research and development by developing a vaccine five times
faster than any other vaccine in history and ramping up production in record
time – quadrupling pre-COVID vaccine production capacities. Together with
logistics and supply chain, they were able to get the life-saving vaccines to
patients worldwide. Although unprecedented cold chain requirements of up to -70°C had to be met,
logistics were able to roll out the distribution three times faster than usual.
Furthermore, multilateral action by public health and policy actors has
provided a conducive framework for rapid vaccine development and deployment.

“We are proud and privileged to have been involved in the
shipments of vaccines, including to Singapore, Malaysia, Japan, Australia
and New
Zealand. Our trained specialists have ensured that the stringent
requirements were strictly adhered to and everything proceeded as planned. We
believe that it is important for the logistics community to continue to play
our part and equally advocate for constructive collaborations to boost our
efforts in the fight against the pandemic,” said Leonora Lim, Head of Life
Science and Healthcare, DHL Customer Solutions and Innovation, Asia Pacific.

Collaboration key to global vaccine distribution

For high levels of
immunization, around 10 billion vaccine doses are required globally by end of
2021. However, only four countries have achieved vaccination rates >50% to
date and many of the remaining countries and territories have less-developed
infrastructure, making the rollout more difficult. To speed up vaccine
distribution, the following areas need to be looked at:

• Industries and
  nations must foster collaboration, paying special attention to building
  strong partnerships and a supportive data backbone.
• For
  safe inbound supply flows, proactive
  transport-capacity management and sustainable return flows for packaging are
  needed. This is particularly critical as more than 95% of global COVID-19
  vaccine doses are produced in just eight countries and need to be delivered
  worldwide.
• Also
  locally tailored last-mile, ground
  distribution models should be put into place with a focus on strategic
  location of warehouses, the synchronization of vaccines and ancillaries flow as
  well as the number and location of vaccination points.

The set-up logistics
infrastructure and capacity should be kept on that level as in the coming years
further 7-9 billion doses of vaccines are necessary annually to keep
(re-)infection rates low and slow down the pace of virus mutations – seasonal
fluctuations not counted.

Planning for the future

Planning for the
future it is essential to identify and prevent health crises early through
active partnerships, expanded global warning systems, an integrated epidemic-preventions
agenda and targeted R&D investments. It is also recommended to expand and
institutionalize virus containment and countermeasures (e. g. digital contact
tracing and national stockpiles) to ensure strategic preparedness and more
efficient response times. To facilitate a speedy rollout of medication (i. e.
diagnostics, therapeutics and vaccines), governments and industries should
employ “ever-warm” manufacturing capacity, blueprint research, production, and
procurement plans, as well as expand local deployment capabilities.

To read the complete white paper, please click on the following link:
https://www.dhl.com/pandemic-resilience

Note to editors:

As the leading logistics
provider for the life sciences and healthcare industry, DHL provides
forward-thinking, intelligent healthcare logistics through a holistic range of
patient-centric solutions. More than 9,000 specialists work across DHL’s
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.

The organization
provides high-quality, fully compliant logistics and supply chain services, and
champions innovative technologies that benefit customers and deliver better
care for patients. 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, 135+ medical express sites,
and a time-definite international express network covering 220 countries and
territories.

You can find the press release for download
as well as further information on dpdhl.com/pressreleases

On
the Internet: dpdhl.com/press

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