Alibaba Group’s Cainiao is in talks with Chinese vaccine makers over COVID-19 vaccine logistics, a representative said recently, as the company launched a partnership with Ethiopian Airlines to transport medicine to the Middle East and Africa.
“We are currently in discussion with some domestic COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers and international organizations on cooperation over COVID-19 vaccine logistics,” the spokeswoman said.
“This is China’s first cross-border medical cold chain route to be operated regularly and is certified to transport temperature-controlled medicines including COVID-19 vaccines,” Cainiao said in a statement.
China has several vaccine developers running the last phases of clinical preliminaries to determine the adequacy of their COVID-19 antibody candidates. They include Sinovac Biotech Ltd, CanSinoBio and China National Pharmaceutical Group (Sinopharm).
Cold chain storage and transportation have gotten progressively significant during the COVID-19 pandemic, which has killed almost 1.5 million individuals. The promising Pfizer immunization, for example, is needed to be stored at temperatures of less than 70 degrees Celsius (- 94 F) or below.