Aditya Sai Kanaparthy and Chhavi Bhardwaj graduated from the Global Risk Management Institute (GRMI) with a postgraduate diploma in risk management (PGDRM) course. Aditya Sai Kanparthy is an engineering graduate who has worked as a business development executive and as an intern at EY, while Chhavi Bhardwaj completed her graduation in 2019 and began looking for professional courses after graduation. She did an internship at Grant Thornton Bharat and was positioned at SRL Diagnostics. PGDRM is, in their opinion, one of India’s best job-oriented courses.

Distribution of Covid Vaccine

By Aditya Sai Kanaparthy and Chhavi Bhardwaj (PGDRM Batch Jan’21-22)

Vaccine Cold Chain Distribution Network In India

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Raw Material Constraint In Production Scaling

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Transport and Storage Challenges: Temperature Constraints​

• India has a 28,000-unit cold storage network that is used for the government’s universal immunization programme. ​
• Since this demand is not permanent, a majority of companies are looking for coordinated efforts to ramp up short-term competencies.

Increased Labor Requirements​

Complex protocols for handling and preparing COVID-19 vaccines, as well as the added precautionary observation period after patients are injected, have the potential to strain labor capacities or divert workers from other critical roles.​

Since vaccines are approved and assuming the distribution capabilities are resolved, comes the question of who will administer the vaccine?

IT Challenges and Waste Management​

Wastages at Points of Care​

• Errors in storing, preparing, or scheduling the administration of doses at points of care will have significant consequences. ​
• Failure to ensure that recipients attend their appointments will not only prevent individual immunity, it could also lead to product wastage.​
• Proper on-site storage conditions are also of critical importance.​
• The current mRNA vaccines will pose a larger challenge for on-site storage because of the temperature requirements.​

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IT Challenges​

• IT systems, including vaccine-tracking systems (such as CDC’s VTrckS) and immunization information systems (IIS), will be essential for allocating, distributing, recording, and monitoring the deployment of vaccines. ​
• Ensuring that these can operate at an unprecedented scale and are configured for a two-dose vaccine schedule has become a major software development, data-hosting, and operational challenge. ​
• additionally, it will remain vital that these systems protect patient privacy and are secure against cyber threats, given the potential for hackers and criminals to cause damage. Cyberattacks have already occurred against COVID-19-vaccine developers and regulators.​
• The contact tracing tools of earlier in the pandemic were generally unsuccessful because they did not give residents a sense of adequate privacy considerations, i.e. location tracking. These challenges must be met as well. ​

Quality Assurance​

• Generating yields while ensuring the safety and efficacy of each dose poses quality-assurance challenges. ​
• A chain of custody will need to be maintained at every step of the supply chain — to ensure a verifiable transcript of the vaccine’s lifecycle and journey​
• To produce a new class of vaccines—such as those based on mRNA or viral vectors—at an unprecedented scale (1.8 billion to 2.3 billion doses by mid-2021), manufacturers have required massive volumes of inputs, a larger technical workforce, and a much-expanded ecosystem of production facilities Understanding and managing large inherent variability in manufacturing.​

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Read the complete research here: Risks in COVID Vaccine distribution by Aditya sai and chavvi bharadwaj

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Disclaimer

This report has been produced by students of Global Risk Management Institute for their own research, classroom discussions and general information purposes only. While care has been taken in gathering the data and preparing the report, the student’s or GRMI does not make any representations or warranties as to its accuracy or completeness and expressly excludes to the maximum extent permitted by law all those that might otherwise be implied. References to the information collected have been given where necessary.

GRMI or its students accepts no responsibility or liability for any loss or damage of any nature occasioned to any person as a result of acting or refraining from acting as a result of, or in reliance on, any statement, fact, figure or expression of opinion or belief contained in this report. This report does not constitute advice of any kind.