Ready to transport Covid vaccine: GMR Air Cargo

Procedures being developed in coordination with suppliers to mitigate risk during shipment

Hyderabad: As Hyderabad, the pharma hub and vaccine capital of India, has the capacity to be the formidable producer of over a third of global vaccine supply to check Covid-19, GMR Hyderabad Air Cargo (GHAC) said procedures were being developed in coordination with manufacturers and supply-chain players to mitigate any risk during the process of transportation of vaccines right from the manufacturers’ facility to the final destination.

With many countries around the world confronting a second wave of Covid-19 and subsequently imposing lockdown again, world-wide trials of vaccine to fight the continuing pandemic are on full throttle. Over the last decade, India has emerged as a global pharmaceuticals and vaccine hub producing about 60 per cent of the world’s vaccines. Experts opine that the city will be an integral part of the Covid-19 solution by virtue of its robust manufacturing technology and capacity to manufacture millions of doses as per the best in class industry practices.

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However, the GHAC in a press release said, developing the vaccine is only half the problem. In this backdrop, GMR Hyderabad Air Cargo (GHAC) has a major role cut out in the entire value chain of vaccine shipments to provide the necessary infrastructure for unbroken cool-chain for the global vaccine shipments to maintain the vaccine integrity.

The GMR Hyderabad Air Cargo has a well-established Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) in place for acceptance, screening and handling of vaccines as per required temperature conditions. The Pharma zone of the terminal is a WHO-GSDP (World Health Organization – Good Storage and Distribution Practices) certified facility, the press release said.

GMR Hyderabad Air Cargo provides end-to-end unbroken cool-chain for pharmaceutical and vaccine shipments. As the vaccines are highly sensitive shipments, GHAC will leverage its efficiency in handling pharma from last 12 years of operations to maintain unbroken cool- chain. The terminal offers one of India’s largest fleet of the modern temp-controlled Cool Containers viz. Envirotainer, VaQtec, etc. GHAC recently launched Cool Dolly- a mobile refrigeration unit for airside transportation of temperature sensitive pharma and vaccine shipments.

Currently, GMR Hyderabad Air Cargo is in the process of expanding specific landside and airside facilities to further handle the spurt in pharma and vaccine shipments from Hyderabad, it said. Plans were in place also to increase the storage capacity for various vaccine types and related accessories and supplies.

 

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