Blue Dart preparing a specialized cold chain in the quest to achieve COVID-19 vaccine delivery demands

News Clip: Cargo Connect

6th October, 2020

Express logistics company and part of the Deutsche Post DHL Group (DPDHL), Blue Dart announced it is ramping up its existing Temperature Controlled Logistics (TCL) infrastructure and will offer complete supply chain solutions to the life sciences and clinical trials sectors, in addition to reefer vehicles services for the pharmaceutical sector for the transport of COVID-19 vaccine shipments.

Ketan Kulkarni, CMO & Head – Business Development, Blue Dart said, “We are actively working with various pharmaceutical organizations that are conducting clinical trials to produce a COVID-19 vaccine in India in their pre and post-production journey. The right partnerships are vital to secure critical medical supplies during health emergencies.”

“With an agile response team overseeing the upscaling of our current capabilities, a strong fleet of dedicated Boeing 757 aircraft and robust infrastructure for our temp-controlled logistics solutions, we are capable and prepared to meet any immediate large-scale demand,” Kulkarni added.

As the development of the COVID-19 vaccine leapfrogs across development phases, stringent temperature requirements (up to – 80°C) will be a critical factor for its transportation and warehousing at every stage.

An efficient and specialized logistics network as that of Blue Dart will be a prerequisite, to ensure safe and rapid delivery of billions of COVID-19 vaccine doses for mass immunization, and other temperature-sensitive pharma products on a national and global scale.

Blue Dart has the capability to handle various temperature requirements– Frozen: -80◦C to -20◦C, Deep Chilled: 2◦C to 8◦C, Ambient: 15 ◦C to 25 ◦C. Blue Dart TCL teams work with three industry-specific segments– Clinical Research Organization (CRO), Vaccine/Testing Kit manufactures and Active Pharma Ingredient for swift and safe delivery of shipments to help improve the supply chain and ensure timely medical provisions.

“A number of factors such as warehousing, packaging and transportation, regional distribution competence, consistent temperature management, the requirement of special equipment and availability of trained personnel to handle the temp-sensitive vaccines will come into play once the vaccine is developed. As a part of the DPDHL Group, Blue Dart has the knowhow of the internal best practices in the life sciences and healthcare logistics business and is a part of a large global logistics network which allows us to use each of our sister Business Unit’s strength in providing the best solution to our customer,” Kulkarni said.