HEALTHCARE services provider Zuellig Pharma Corp. has ordered 10 additional ultra-low freezers to increase cold chain capacity in the Philippines in preparation for the vaccine rollout in the country.
“We have ordered 10 additional ultra-low freezers, on top of the 14 already deployed through our network in anticipation of the storage and distribution demands of COVID-19 vaccines in the Philippines,” Zuellig Chief Business Officer Jannette Jakosalem said in a statement.
The 24 ultra-cold freezers can hold seven million doses of vaccines at temperatures as low as -70 to -80 degrees Celsius, it said.
Zuellig has cold rooms with temperatures of two to eight degrees Celcius in warehouses located in Santa Rosa, Laguna, Sun Valley in Parañaque, Cebu, and Davao, and has the capacity of up to 629 million vaccine doses. Its walk-in freezers can store up to 52 million doses at -15 to -25 degrees Celsius.
Zuellig’s cold chain includes the eZCooler solution, which extends storage time of temperature-sensitive products in transit to five days from two day with a traditional system, it said.
The Philippine government plans to procure 148 million of vaccines this year to inoculate up to 70 million Filipinos.
Vaccine czar Carlito G. Galvez, Jr. in a statement on Sunday said the government is expected to receive at least 5.6 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines from Pfizer, Inc. and AstraZeneca Plc. in the first quarter under the World Health Organization’s coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) Vaccine Global Access facility.
Zuelleg said it had been involved in the supply chain management of “almost every major vaccine” in the country.
The company participated in the urgent deliveries of influenza vaccines and conducting mass flu vaccination exercises in the country amid the pandemic, Zuellig Chief Executive and Area Director Maikel Kuijpers said.
“We are honored and excited to engage with the Philippine government to explore ways in which we can support measures to address this current crisis and help execute the national COVID-19 vaccination program,” he said in the statement.
Mr. Kuijpers also said that Zuellig’s COVID-19 digital care platform eZVax developed in partnership with Accenture and Microsoft, serves as a “centralize by hub coordinating and linking both stakeholders and processes through the whole mass vaccination program.”
The platform also allows checking of eligibility, pre-screening, scheduling of vaccination and has administration support with records of patient and vaccine details and make health passport or vaccination card. This will also generate centralized reporting of adverse events. — Vann Marlo M. Villegas
