enough air freight capacity.
What we are seeing is the
reagents being shipped from
Asia to countries who are then
applying their own labs and
in-region manufacturing bases
to produce those kits with the
reagents.
“Those reagents need to be
transported in frozen
shipments. There are a couple
of options there – one is to use
low grade packaging that is
basically cardboard, polystyrene
and dry ice. However, there is a
limit to how much dry ice you
can put on an aircraft without
risking the asphyxiation of the
air crew.
“While that may be one of
the cheapest ways to transport
from a packaging perspective,
this further limits the capacity
and the next options are then
to use phase change material
with vacuum insulation. We
are seeing signifi cant demand
for our rental products in the
frozen confi guration to support
that requirement. Those rental
products have been
repositioned to South Korea
and are being used to transport
the reagents around the world.”
I think we will
end up with leaner
fl eets with smaller,
more fuel effi cient
aircraft
Dominic Hyde, President,
Credo on Demand at Peli BioThermal
Has COVID-19 had an effect on
clinical trials in the
pharmaceutical industry?
“In a bid to combat COVID-19,
we’ve seen clinical trials started
globally. Those trials are
associated with antivirals which
are mainly pre-existing products
being evaluated to see if they
have any effi cacy in helping the
patient fi ght COVID-19.
“Antivirals are boosting
clinical trials now, vaccines will
precipitate mega trials down the
line and test kits need to be
shipped today.
“There is immediate demand
to ship frozen reagents. There
are phase 3 clinical trials for
antivirals, which have started,
and there are mega trials
anticipated once vaccines get to
phase 3 clinical trials.
“As COVID-19 is truly global,
we would expect the recruited
population in those trials to be
refl ective of almost all ethnicities
and due to the indiscriminate
nature of the virus, across all age
ranges as well.
“They need to fi nd the
science fi rst. In prior pandemics
there was talk about fi ve-year
lead times to vaccines and the
publicity around some of the
most promising sources of
vaccine development today are
talking about improvements on
that fi ve years to the region of
two years.”
How has the need for testing
kits and reagents changed in
the light of COVID-19?
“The other part of COVID-19
medical products has been
associated with test kits, ranging
from fi nished product test kits to
the reagents necessary to
produce test kits in country. The
standout country in terms of
high-quality reagent production
is South Korea.
“While fi nished products test
kits could be made, they are
much bulkier and there isn’t
What is the ongoing impact of COVID-19 for pharmaceutical
clinical trials already in progress prior to the pandemic?
“The global pandemic is set to have ongoing and far-reaching
repercussions on the pharmaceuticals market this year and
beyond.
“While everyone is talking about the clinical trials associated
with COVID-19, I am particularly concerned about the impact on
existing trials with patients dropping out. The FDA does seem to
have moved quite quickly to revise its guidance, which gives
some credibility that the impact on clinical trials must be a real
issue. Although it will take time until we have visibility of it
through the FDA, there is no clear answer at the moment.
“There are unintended consequences, which could be quite
severe for people whose lives might have been dependent on the
positive outcome of some of the in-progress trials.”
How will the COVID-19 pandemic change the pharmaceuticals
market over 2020 and 2021 - and will there be positives?
“I think the challenge from a commercial standpoint is how its
supply chain adapts through the rest of the year and through
2021, including how it adapts to the lower air cargo capacities
that will be available in the market.
“It will be interesting to see what the air cargo economics look
like as a result of the reduced capacity and whether that might
drive pharma shippers into other modes or means.
“It could be that, for example, you can ship fi nished product,
that’s packaged and labelled, but that generally has a lower
volume of actual product for the overall volume shipped.
“Whereas if you ship the product in bulk and use in-country
or regional fi ll and seal labelling and packaging contractors, you
have basically reduced the overall volume of drug product that is
being shipped by airfreight.
“There are pharmaceutical contract manufacturers around the
world and risk management and business continuity might cause
some pharmaceutical shippers to use in-country or in-region
contract manufacturers rather than their own facilities to
eliminate air freight completely. But those changes take time to
implement, so we won’t see that happening immediately.
“As a result, it is probably a good time to be a contract fi ll, seal
and labelling entity, as well as a contract manufacturer.
“There are a number of established rental container companies
operating in the sector. Often their business models are based
heavily on partnerships with airlines that utilise the free space on
aircraft for the global network balancing or repositioning of their
containers around the world. Much of that free space is rarer,
with less airfreight capacity during the pandemic, so those
models will face challenges to operate as they did in 2019.
“Whereas having a global programme that uses a combination
of sea freight, rail and road services for network balancing to
repositioning containers eliminates the dependence on airline
partnerships. That modal fl exibility will be a boon, especially as
the industry now faces reduced cargo capacity.
“It is going to be an interesting time for those established
container rental companies to see how they adapt to the reduced
capacity and how they try and address their repositioning and
network balancing capabilities.”
www.airlogisticsinternational.com June 2020 33
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