The Hope Consortium in partnership with other industry players have developed an extensive end-to-end supply chain solutions for vaccines distribution. The new solution is capable of delivering millions of vaccines from the point of production to the point of vaccination, safely, effectively and transparently.
The Hope Consortium comprises of Abu Dhabi entities, the Department of Health in Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi Ports, Etihad Cargo, Rafed, SkyCell and Maqta Gateway. Working together, the consortium is developing capacity to transport, store, and distribute 18 billion Covid-19 vaccine doses per annum to countries around the world, including Kenya.
The Executive Office Director, department of Health, Abu, Dhabi, Dr. Omar Najim, at a virtual meeting, organized by Hope Consortium, said, “The COVID-19 pandemic has negatively impacted societies, economies, communities, and caused disruption across many areas around the globe and emphasized on the need to collaborate to enable economic recovery. We need to come together from the point of vaccine manufacturing to end users in need, anywhere in the world.”
The organization is also keen to ensure the delivery of vaccines to all those wherever they are and to help win the battle against the COVID-19 pandemic. The effort places Abu Dhabi as the central life sciences hub for the global response to the pandemic by leveraging its strategic position as a gateway to 2/3 of the global population.
“To address the need for complete and fully-integrated vaccine supply chain solutions, we have developed one of the most extensive and integrated, end-to-end supply chain solutions in the world, saving countries and communities the challenge of building their own supply chains”, Dr. Najim added.
In terms of vaccine wastage due to limited refrigeration capacity in certain parts of the world, the Consortium has employed a unique hub and spoke model. This model combines the Emirate’s strategic position as a global gateway with the partners’ own unique logistical capacities. The model allows it to store large quantities of vaccines at its advanced cold and ultra-cold storage hub and align its deliveries with the ability of recipient countries and communities to absorb these supplies safely.
The Consortium is also training the local medical and logistics personnel on how to handle these sensitive products, thereby helping eliminate vaccine wastage and ensuring that every vaccine counts.
To assure safety and effectiveness, all the vaccines delivered through the Hope Consortum’s supply chain are connected to mUnity, a digital blockchain-enabled solution developed by Maqta Gateway. Tracking and managing the journey of the vaccines through the cold chain, from production all the way to the inoculation is in real-time. This ensures that the vaccines always remain within the prescribed temperature bands.