Even if enough vaccines are secured, there is a huge logistical challenge: how to transport temperature-sensitive vaccines to locations without reliable electricity and refrigeration.
The answer is to develop a “cooling chain” – a network of vehicles, refrigerators and cold rooms – that can be used to seamlessly transport the vaccine from the manufacturer to the vaccination point.
“We knew we would have to move billions of vaccines around the world to rural communities, and that we needed a temperature-controlled environment,” he adds.
The Pfizer BioNTech vaccine should be kept at 75 degrees Celsius (minus 103 degrees Fahrenheit), while Moderna can be kept at minus 20 degrees Celsius (minus 4 degrees Fahrenheit).
Nevertheless, existing cold chain networks will not be enough. Without new technology, up to 25% of the vaccine supply could be lost, says Peters.
Cooling on solar power
This is where solar energy comes in, says Hugh Whalan, CEO of PEG Africa, a company that offers affordable solar products to people in West Africa.
In preparation for a vaccination process with Covid-19, the company – funded by Power Africa, a network of private and public groups set up by USAid – has started providing solar power systems to healthcare clinics.
“Refrigerators need power to work reliably to store vaccines safely, otherwise they could spoil. So we supply the power,” he told CNN.
Previously, PEG Africa’s refrigeration efforts focused on setting up a cold chain for food products, which helps market the products without spoiling them. It is currently testing solar freezers among fishermen in Ghana, Ivory Coast and Senegal.
When the pilot is completed by the middle of this year, Whalan hopes to use the same financing and distribution infrastructure to export solar-powered refrigerators and freezers to health clinics and vaccination points.
Of the two refrigerator suppliers that PEG Africa works with, one has already received Performance, Quality and Safety (PQS) certification from the World Health Organization, and the other is in the process of obtaining it.
Reach the last mile
Before a vaccine is administered to someone, it usually has to go from the manufacturer to an airport, to a national vaccine shop, to a provincial vaccine shop, to a local health center and finally to the end point where it is given to a patient.
“The last mile is the biggest challenge, and that’s where the biggest gap is,” Peters says.
Gricd, a small Nigerian business, hopes to fill this gap. It builds solar-powered refrigerators for transporting vaccines that can be kept at minus 20 degrees Celsius (minus 4 degrees Fahrenheit) and can be remotely controlled and monitored in real time.
During the pandemic, the company worked with Nigeria’s National Center for Disease Control and the Nigerian Institute of Medical Research to collect and transport Covid-19 test specimens from remote areas. It has also partnered with private healthcare companies in South Africa, Ghana and Egypt, says Oghenetega Iortim, the company’s founder.
The boxes range in size from 15 to 100 liters, and the smallest can carry about 200 doses of vaccine. The 15-liter box is specifically designed for the ‘last kilometer’ – the last phase of the journey.
“It can fit in any existing transport medium, whether it’s a boat, the back of a motorcycle, a bicycle or a person’s back,” says Iortim.
As they run out of solar-powered batteries – which maintain a stable internal temperature for up to a week – they are suitable for areas outside the grid, he adds.
It also contains a device that monitors the location, humidity and temperature and transmits this data to the distributor in real time.
“It scares you if something goes wrong – if the temperature drops suddenly or if there is an eclipse – and you can take proactive measures to ensure that the vaccines do not lose their potency,” says Iortim.
While Gricd products have not yet received PQS certification from the WHO, Iortim says the coolers are gaining certification. He adds that the product is certified by the Standard Organization of Nigeria.
Vaccination on an unprecedented scale
But it has focused on certain geographic areas or specific sections of the population, Peters says.
“What we have not done before is to vaccinate the whole world as quickly as possible,” he says.
He hopes that innovations in the cold chain for Covid-19 can bring wider long-term benefits and be applied to food and health.
“While investing hundreds of millions of pounds in new equipment … are we designing a system to solve a problem today, or are we designing a system with lasting legacy?” he says.