Vaccine Supply Chains Need To Be Better Funded And Strengthened, Or Lives Will Be At Risk

Abstract

In the next decade, at least twelve additional vaccines that target such diseases as typhoid, malaria, and dengue will become available to lower- and middle-income countries. These vaccines must travel along what are called supply chains, which include all personnel, systems, equipment, and activities involved in ensuring that vaccines are effectively delivered from the point of production to the people who need them. But for various reasons, supply chains are already strained in many developing countries, and the potential inability to distribute new vaccines will place lives at risk. Among the many steps needed to strengthen the global vaccine supply chain, we suggest that the international community pursue improved coordination between organizations that donate and ship vaccines and the host-country officials who receive and distribute the vaccines, as well as better training for supply-chain managers.

Monitoring Vaccine Cold Chain Model with Coloured Petri Net

“…According to WHO [10], the vaccine supply chain contains the following processes: estimating of needs, storage, distribution, monitoring and supervision.…”

“…The aim of distribution systems for vaccines and safeinjection equipment is "to ensure continuous availability of adequate quantities of potent vaccine and safe-injection equipment" [10]. Otherwise, the distribution systems must allow having a well-functioning distribution system and clearly establishing: the supply period for each level and the corresponding quantities of vaccines and safe-injection equipment to be supplied, and the suitable route and transport needed to distribute the vaccines and safe-injection equipment.…”

Vaccine Marketing

“…Doubling the number of vaccines in a country and introducing single-dose vials in addition to multi-dose vials (for safety reasons and to reduce the waste that occurs when a partially used vial has to be discarded) are estimated to increase vaccine storage needs by 500 % or more (Kaufmann et al 2011 ). Product differentiation also increases costs for vaccine-dispensing physicians, because ordering, stocking, and handling several vaccines instead of one signifi cantly increase costs and risks.…”

Vaccine Presentation and Packaging Advisory Group: a forum for reaching consensus on vaccine product attributes

“…10,11 The addition of new vaccine formulations or presentations to these already stretched systems can generate further problems. [12][13][14] Because newer vaccine products, such as pneumococcal conjugate vaccines and rotavirus vaccines, are much more difficult to research, develop and manufacture than traditional vaccines, they are more expensive. 15 As costs rise, it becomes increasingly important to manage inventories and minimize open and closed vial wastage.…”

“…15 As costs rise, it becomes increasingly important to manage inventories and minimize open and closed vial wastage. [12][13][14] In addition, many new vaccines are presented in a format and packaged in a way that can create handling difficulties for countries with poor infrastructure. Furthermore, the cold chain system, which was designed in the late 1970s to early 1980s for the transport of the six traditional vaccines that existed at the time, lacks the capacity to deal with the much larger number of vaccines that exist today.…”