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Due to unprecedented demand for mRNA vaccines, UPS will double its facilities by 2023. .
According to Weiss Wheeler, president of UPS Healthcare and Life Sciences, which has started building millions of square feet of space as a result of the logistics company’s partnership with Pfizer (BioPT) / BioNTech (BNTX), this has only accelerated the company’s strategy. Follow up before the outbreak.
“Health care at UPS was part of the matrix organization. It was not a part of the business as it is today. We have not been given the same priorities since I took over the role,” Wheeler told Yahoo Finance in a recent interview.
Aside from the epidemic, the health care logistics market is booming in recent years, with more targeted therapies known as biology.
Cold chain storage in particular is becoming increasingly important as a result, with some estimates forecasting more than $ 225 billion by 2026. UPS is one of the major players, and its market share is only a growing number targeting new international hubs.
The company was already expanding to 1 million square feet a year, but in the last two years UPS has increased to 4 million square feet, Willler said.
This means that the company By the end of 2023, it will have 15 million square feet, compared to 7.5 million square feet by Willler’s start in 2020.
And for companies like Pfizer and Moderna (MRNA), mRNA-based vaccines have the potential to enter the new market as a basic technology, which requires transportation at 80 or 70 degrees Celsius.
Speaking to mRNA at the company’s innovation summit in June, he said, “I think I’m here to stay, and I think we’re planning on that.”
“This means that from now on, we need to protect these cold chain supply lines around the world,” he said.
Current activity
At the end of 2019, the company appointed Willler as head of a more structured health care unit – before the outbreak began.
With the health industry adding time-consuming and temperature-sensitive treatments and more advanced technology solutions in October 2019, the company has managed the healthcare sector for more than a quarter.
Shortly after boarding the ship, Wheeler, in collaboration with Pfizer, was tasked with delivering hundreds of millions of CVD-19 vaccines from Kalamazoo, Mich.
Although UPS is not close to where it is interested in new locations and routes, the company has invested in Michigan and Louisville Ken., Freezing farms, warehouses and roads.
“Because of the epidemic, we have changed our strategy for a longer period of time. So we have built a lot of capacity. .
Similar to Louisville, the company created a new ice-cold factory to transport new, much-needed vaccines and storage for PPE and test equipment.
Once the Trump administration received the COVID-19 vaccine, OPS continued to play a central role in the vaccine delivery after it became a private partner in Operation Warp Speed (OSS) to ensure rapid distribution – weekly calls still. Continuous between all partners, including Pfizer and Moderna.
“He immediately turned to the UPS for help. The US Army realized it could not do what we did,” said General Gustav Perna, who led the operation.
All partners regularly work together to make sure everything goes smoothly.
“Such meetings still take place every week with the government,” Willer said.
At the international level, especially in Africa, a similar level of integration was possible.
“The African Union, the Ministries of Health, UNICEF, Gav E … all made the election a little more complicated.
Equality and global networks
The key to learning from this epidemic was the need for a more equitable and timely distribution of medicines. Nowhere in sub-Saharan Africa is it so obvious that most countries are still trying to get the first CV-19 vaccine.
The reasons behind it are many, but partly due to a lack of local infrastructure and a lack of confidence in the limited number of players in the world, all of them will lead to the situation, Willer said.
At the macro level, most of the ingredients for pharmaceutical products are made in China, but the recent lockout in Shanghai and the general outbreak of the epidemic have led to discussions about going to the beach, Wheeler explained.
“Ideally, it means setting up more manufacturing facilities in the United States. That is economically impossible,” he said.
That is why UPS sees opportunities in India.
“We believe that India will be the next major exporter of drugs and biological drugs to the United States and Europe.
South Korea is another target as it moves further into biological production. Nowadays, clean production is mostly done in Europe. But UPS is focusing on expanding in South Korea, which will provide similar capacity and transportation routes.
In Africa, in recent months some countries have become the focus of vaccines, promising to expand production. South Africa is particularly serving as the MRI center for the continent.
But in the process, going beyond the final filling process requires more focus on technology transfer.
In the past, the process could take up to two years, says Willer. But the outbreak helped reduce that time.
Wheeler said South Africa is a large pharmaceutical market and UPS has done a lot in the past. But to succeed, you must overcome some of the key obstacles.
The last mile
Part of the problem was the safe, secure, and efficient transportation of goods during the outbreak.
In some parts of the world, the last mile remains an obstacle.
“The biggest challenge we face is to understand exactly how long an active package will last in the heat when trying to deliver something from a remote area in Michigan to Africa. That transit time is a very important part,” said Wheeler.
The complex includes very technical issues such as different rules and customer requirements for each port.
“If you push the country’s borders without proper customs, brokers, and claims, it can be stuck in the air … or it can stay on the ground for days. In that case, everything will be out of date,” Willer said.
And there are protocols and notifications for various regulatory bodies when obsolete amounts are removed.
That’s why partners and suppliers are leading MR vaccine drones, such as Zipline.
“These are just a few technical details that we have to worry about all day.
Still, the experience of the epidemic has given the company confidence in the cold chain of healthcare – especially in emerging markets.
“I think as long as we have the capacity to expand our reach from these distant lands and continue to build our facilities where we need them around the world, I think there is a bright future for biological medicine. In the future,” Wheeler said.
Follow Angeline Twitter @AnjKhem
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