A report on Logistics of Artificial Insemination of Cows published late last year (Indian Express Nov. 25; Parthasarathi Biswas) was as revealing as it was timely. As multiple vaccines against Covid-19 was getting ready to hit the markets, policymakers and public health professionals were confronted with a palpable concern over a countrywide pharmaceutical-appropriate cold chain infrastructure that could help maintain the integrity of these vaccines.
The report pointed out to an elaborate logistics network of collecting raw ejaculate from elite bulls from 56 bull stations and inseminate female bovines belonging to farmers across the length and breadth of the country. Astonishingly, semen is packaged after freezing in vials and preserved throughout its journey in -196◦C and helps achieve in artificially inseminating more than 8 Crores bovines annually. This is way lower than -20◦ to -70◦C that Moderna & Pfizer Covid vaccines needed!
Cold chain refers to a combination of warehousing and distribution channels through the refrigerating solutions planned to maintain the quality and shelf life of the perishable food, fruits & vegetables, photographic film, and pharmaceutical & healthcare drugs. It reduces wastage, minimizes loss, and retains drugs’ efficacy despite the arduous supply chain – from farm to fork in case of food and from production centres to the patients, in case of pharma and healthcare products. The need for a cold chain logistics and distribution network cannot be overemphasized.
A major chunk of essential drugs in the healthcare & pharmaceutical segment are complex formulations and biological-based medicines meant for vaccination, hormonal therapy & other complex and sensitive procedures which require temperature-controlled environment to retain drugs’ integrity. Since 2011, there has been a 45% increase in the overall number of pharmaceutical & healthcare products requiring cold chain logistics.
According to a recent report, in 2018, global sales of biotechnology medicines and biological products were estimated at more than $300billion. In and after the pandemic, this number is expected to see a whopping rise. In India, growth in pharmaceutical cold chain logistics in 2020-21 is conservatively estimated to be at 12%, and is expected to register a CAGR upward of 15% by some experts.
Cold Chain logistics & express distribution in India, however, suffers from neglect. Almost the entire cold chain logistics is dedicated to the perishable foods, fruits, vegetables, pulp and other beverages with the share of healthcare and pharmaceutical products is a mere 3%. Anecdotally, it is expected to touch 6%. With 45% of essential drugs globally sourced during the preceding decade being temperature-sensitive, the figures around do reflect the current predicament of cold chain logistics in India. There has been a lack of investment. Almost 2/3rd of cold chain is privately-owned and managed with policy initiatives limited mostly to food and beverages.
Additionally, it also suffers from lack of integration of pharma drug production centres with warehousing and distribution channels. The logistics players, the most important but invisible performer in the chain, often suffers from a lack of know how and wherewithal. Cold chain is highly capital-intensive and a highly fragmented, informal logistics companies in India are ill-prepared to bite the bullet. Resultantly, the cost of such drug is comparatively higher in India and as we have seen during the 2nd phase of the pandemic, when demand for them arose, supply became scarce.
The Government of India, during the last few years has announced some initiatives including “infrastructure status” for Logistics & Transport industry (in 2017), followed by the announcement of National Logistics Policy while presenting the Union Budget, 2018-19. Cheap lending on easier terms with enhanced limits including eligibility to access India Infrastructure Credit Financing Company Limited (IIFCL), are some of the enabling measures seeking higher formalization. These are, however, very early days to measure policy impact.
India over the last few decades has built and has successfully run an ambitious model of artificial insemination logistics. It would need a purposeful plan of action to replicate this model in cold chain logistics of pharmaceutical and healthcare products.
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