Reshaping The Cold Chain Logistics For Efficient Distribution of COVID-19 Drugs

Ever since WHO (World Health Organization) declared COVID-19 as a deadly pandemic, the world we live in was no longer the same for any of us. From the way we live to the way business operates, every aspect of human life was forced to change overnight. It is safe to say that COVID-19 drastically impacted each dimension of our lives.

More than anything, COVID-19 had a direct impact on global healthcare and pushed the healthcare systems under immense catastrophic pressure, and strained them to work way beyond their capabilities. Back in 2020, the only hope for the survival of mankind while fighting off an unknown force was the COVID-19 vaccination.

But the only good news during these devastating times is that we have made it to the stage of recovery. With different life-saving drugs like Remdesivr, Dexamethasone, Anticoagulation drugs, and Tocilumbaz, as well as Covishield, Covaccine, & Pfizer having gained approval from the government, India became one step closer to put an end to the current pandemic.

As the approved COVID-19 medications rolled off production lines, it created an urgent need for the logistics and supply chain industry to respond actively and innovate their solutions in order to provide stringent storage conditions and streamlined transportation.

Now that the distribution of these life-saving drugs takes center stage on a global level, AWL as a supply chain leader came up with streamlined, yet resilient, aids centered on patient healthcare with the help of its highly robust but agile cold chain logistics services to accommodate the world's largest vaccination drive undergoing in India.

AWL is driving many of the critical protocols and is establishing a cadence for best practices that could scale across functional domains. These temperature-controlled medications and vaccines might lose their integrity and effectiveness if not placed in adequate and extremely precise storage thresholds.

AWL - Next-Gen Supply Chain Services

AWL is a word-class cold chain logistics company in India that provides end-to-end integrated logistics services through its strong global network spread across multiple locations. From dry ports, freight forwarding, customs brokerage, port clearance, customs handling, freight forwarding, bonded warehouses to warehousing, third party logistics, first mile, and last-mile connectivity, the company offers a wide range of scalable and automated logistics solutions.

In order to ensure effective and streamlined transportation of these temperature-sensitive pharmaceuticals, AWL India's cold storage refrigeration facilities are all self-sufficient, with double and even triple redundancy to avoid any sort of threat and failures. Our advanced solutions have temperature recorders that are equipped with an alarm system specially built to ensure the complete safety of the drugs.

Also, our new and innovative logistics service models for vaccine and drug fulfillment extend to existing best practices and advanced technology solutions, as we work at a complementary and augmented level. With the help of an extensive network scattered evenly across India and advanced tools at disposal, AWL works forward to expertly manage and flawlessly deliver and execute the shipments around the country.

How AWL Is Ensuring A Smooth Distribution Through Specialized Handling?

As India's topmost reshaping cold chain logistics company, AWL has ramped up its capabilities to provide world-class infrastructure to maintain the integrity and safety of drugs and vaccines. With the help of its robust and tech-enabled cold chain refrigeration system, AWL is gearing up to enable an end-to-end uninterrupted and steady distribution of these drugs. Furthermore, AWL is also well equipped in empowering seamless processing of crucial drugs for global exports and imports. Here's how AWL ensures the same:

● Advanced and Tech-Enabled Warehouse Ecosystem

At AWL India, our specialized infrastructure offers mobile cold storage via cool zones/containers that have automated temperature data loggers and humidity sensors to ensure better monitoring and control while handling sensitive bio-medical shipments like vaccines and drugs. For timely and rapid mechanized management of shipments containing critical pharmaceuticals and to avoid any threat/leakage of shipments, dock levellers are placed adjacent to the truck dock area to enable multiple vehicle compatibility.

In case of any power outage issue, our cold storage refrigeration systems are backed up with alternative power sources so that no climatic or other issues can impact the integrity of drugs and vaccines. Our entire storage and transportation zone is backed up with alarm alerts along with CCTV surveillance to check and upgrade any temperature outing in real-time.

Temperature recording and monitoring are done with the help of data loggers in restricted cold storage for temperature-sensitive cargo like drugs and vaccines. Besides the vaccine storage, our in-build CHAKSU dashboard is also used to monitor temperature, pressure, humidity, and location of the shipments during the transportation and last-mile delivery process.

Proactive Management & Transportation

The development and the process of gaining approval for effective drugs and vaccines against Covid-19 have been a critical process. But safely and efficiently transporting those pharmaceuticals manufacturing stations to vaccination centers all across the country is possibly the biggest challenge the cold chain logistics industry has ever come across.

The transportation of much-anticipated life-saving drugs requires strict and regulated atmospheric conditions – delivery within the deadline, at the right temperatures throughout, and to locations all over the country. To ensure an uninterrupted supply of shipments from the point of departure to final delivery, the CHAKSU dashboard is being used to check the real-time visibility and safety of the cargo during transportation.

An advanced transportation management system is designed for transporting cargo regionally and where necessary which provides deep metadata for truckload visibility. With the help of detailed information of the exact whereabouts of each good and the idea about the possibility of any delays, AWL can easily organize the distribution of the pharmaceuticals to proactively manage cargoes in transit to prevent vaccine degradation. Our advanced dashboard records every delivery event on a shipment’s journey and also transmits the data and analytics needed to inspect sub-par logistics operations and therefore, unveil opportunities to optimize enactment and performance for enhanced outcomes.

Wrapping Up

Covid-19 pushed the cold chain logistics companies into the spotlight and has highlighted the need to be ready to quickly meet demand spikes. Even though the pandemic has distributed the equilibrium of the world, the rapid development of Covid-19 drugs and vaccines has set a positive precedent. AWL, with the help of its end-to-end cold storage refrigeration services and well-established and proactive processes is looking forward to initiating a smooth and mass vaccination drive along with the government and health bodies in the country and bring back the balance in our world.