DHL Global Forwarding, the freight specialist arm of Deutsche Post DHL Group, has been tasked to bring in the newly approved Covid-19 antiviral pills to South Korea to bolster its fight against the pandemic. The logistics Group has been heavily involved in the transportation of Covid-19 vaccines worldwide, shipping well over 1.8 billion shipments of vaccines across 174 countries.

“Across the Group, it’s been a privilege to be part of the global fight against the pandemic. Our network around the world banded together to make the fastest, smoothest delivery of Covid-19 vaccines worldwide possible. Now, we’re doing the same with the latest antiviral pills said to significantly lessen the severity of the disease for patients and the community. We are honored to deliver this important shipment to South Korea, the first country in Asia Pacific to receive the Covid -19 antiviral pills,” said SP Song, Managing Director, DHL Global Forwarding Korea.

“Unlike the shipments of Covid-19 vaccines, which were required to be shipped under specific temperature and dry ice conditions, the transportation of the antiviral pills are akin to regular pharmaceutical goods transported at a range of 15-25 degree Celsius, requiring limited bespoke logistics arrangements.”

DHL managed the transport of the antiviral pills from the production sites in Germany to Belgium, where the shipment undergoes value-added thermal packaging before being transported to its destination in South Korea.  

“It is important that as many people as possible have access to vaccines and the necessary life-saving medication when needed. With a highly experienced global network of healthcare logistics expertise to ensure the integrity of the antiviral pills throughout the journey, we’re proud to continue our part and help make a difference to lives and livelihoods in the communities we operate in”, said Song.

More than 9,000 life sciences and healthcare specialists work across DHL’s dedicated global network so that pharmaceutical, medical devices, clinical trials and research organizations, wholesalers and distributors, as well as hospitals and healthcare providers are connected across the value chain and through digitalization, from clinical trials to point of care, and every step in between.

DHL’s portfolio for the healthcare industry includes 150+ pharmacists, 20+ clinical trials depots, 100+ certified stations, 160+ GDP-qualified warehouses, 15+ GMP-certified sites, 135+ medical express sites, and a time-definite international express network covering over 220 countries and territories.

On a global scale, logistics providers are challenged to establish medical supply chain rapidly to deliver vaccines of an unprecedented amount of more than 10 billion doses worldwide—also in regions with less developed logistics infrastructures, where approximately 3 billion people live. To provide global coverage over the next two years, DHL estimated in its 2020 vaccine logistics whitepaper that up to 200,000 pallet shippers and 15 million cooling boxes, as well as 15,000 flights, will be required across the various supply chain setups. In its whitepaper “Revisiting Pandemic Resilience,” DHL also estimated that from 2022 onwards, a further 7-9 billion vaccine doses are necessary annually to keep (re-)infection rates low and slow down the pace of virus mutations.