According to the WHO, there are currently more than 100 COVID-19 vaccine candidates under development, with a number of these in the clinical trial phase. Estimates suggest that the logistics industry will have to deliver 10 billion doses in the next couple of years. The global scale of this undertaking will pose major challenges to logistics networks around the world.

IUMI has prepared a guidance paper to provide an overview of the risks and challenges foreseen by members of IUMI’s Cargo, Loss Prevention, and Legal & Liability Committees as well as several Secretaries of IUMI member associations based in various countries on five continents. Three themes were resounding in all comments:

• Maintaining required temperatures throughout the entire supply chain.
• COVID-19 vaccines will be high value goods, thus exposed to the risk of theft.
• Lack of capacity in the supply chain.

Preparing for and responding to these risks will facilitate the smooth delivery of the vaccines and ensure the population gets vaccinated. Marine insurers are enablers in this process for an extraordinary logistical undertaking of global scale which will help the world to return to a “new normal” following the corona pandemic. Insurers’ experience in risk handling and mitigation should be offered to clients proactively.

For more information and to download IUMI’s recent guidance paper on the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines please visit the IUMI COVID-19 news page.