Coronavirus in India: For better vaccine delivery, Apollo LogiSolutions announces an integrated platform

Coronavirus vaccine distribution: Amid the gaining pace of coronavirus vaccination drive in India, Apollo LogiSolutions (ALS) has announced an integrated vaccine delivery platform. For this, it said that it would be partnering with key industry stakeholders in technology, pharmaceutical, cold chain warehousing, airline and airport and healthcare sectors. The aim of the company is to make the distribution model of coronavirus vaccines in india more robust with the help of this platform, for which it has already onboarded StaTwig firm for tech assistance. StaTwig is a blockchain technology firm which has found the support of the UN.

Apart from StaTwig, the company has also paired up with major companies like Coldman and Kool Solutions to provide its platform with an effective cold chain warehousing, having a capacity of over 70,000 pallets. This warehousing facility would be at 10 locations across India. For transportation, it said, budget airlines Indigo and GMR-Hyderabad airport have been roped in.

With the beginning of April, the country has now moved on to the third phase of its vaccination drive. In this phase all people above the age of 45 years would be able to get a vaccine shot, without people between 45 years and 59 years of age having to meet the criteria of having comorbidities. This means that the drive would now be held at an even larger scale than the previous one, in which about 26 crore were aimed to be vaccinated. This translates into India’s need for faster delivery of larger vaccine batches. The challenge is augmented by the fact that the vaccines are only being produced by two manufacturers – Pune-based Serum Institute of India and Hyderabad’s Bharat Biotech. Amid this, a logistics solution company stepping in to lend its expertise to the drive could prove to be a major advantage, if everything runs smoothly.

Indigo has already been playing a key role in the vaccination drive in the country, transporting vaccines to the required cities, Apollo LogiSolutions said, adding that that was a reason why the company paired up with Indigo for this initiative.

With this platform, the company hopes to address challenges linked to the end-to-end supply chain, while also hoping to bring in a more transparent and effective tracking mechanism in the distribution of the coronavirus vaccines in India.

Apollo LogiSolutions Vice Chairman and MD Raaja Kanwar said that the company was glad to have built a platform that has the potential to aid the country in the massive immunisation drive that is currently ongoing in the country.