Pharmaceutical giant Zuellig has expanded its cold chain capabilities and accelerated its digital solutions as it plays a big role in the vaccine roll-out for Covid-19 in the Philippines and other Asian countries.
A key part of Zuellig’s immunization distribution efforts is eZVax. Developed in collaboration with Accenture and Microsoft, eZVax is an end-to-end solution that helps governments and private clients manage all aspects of vaccine distribution and administration. eZVax is already being used in the Philippines.
“What we’re doing with eZVax is really to augment our traditional brick-and-mortar distribution with (our) end-to-end vaccine management solution,” said Zuellig Pharma head of SAP and IT solutions Daniel Laverick.
The vaccine management solution is comprised of several components, including eZRx and eZTracker. These components, though, would not have been possible without SAP software.
SAP software centralizes data management across all of a company’s departments to facilitate effective information flow. From letting Zuellig monitor which vaccination sites are running low on vaccines to confirming vaccine authenticity, SAP software plays several fundamental roles in Zuellig’s vaccine distribution.
At a media Q&A session held on Monday, June 21, Laverick laid out how SAP software underpins the eZRx and eZTracker components of Zuellig’s eZVax solution.
eZRx functions as Zuellig’s vaccine e-commerce site. Here, the vaccination sites can order and replenish their stock of vaccines daily based on the jabs they were able to administer.
As soon as they’re placed, these orders are instantaneously processed by Zuellig’s SAP, sent through the logistics and warehousing process, and shipped real-time to the vaccination sites.
“With the digital solutions that we have plus our core SAP system working in tandem… we can have full visibility of where products are, where stock is, make sure there is no products about to expire, make sure that we don’t get to a situation where we have a stock out and there are no vaccines available to vaccinate the people who have turned out,” explained Laverick.
On the other hand, eZTracker employs proprietary SAP blockchain technology to address the issue of counterfeit medical products in the healthcare supply chain. It allows Zuellig’s clients to instantly verify the provenance of the vaccines and even enables them monitor the temperature the vaccines are being stored at.
“Working in conjunction with our SAP system and our blockchain solutions, we then are able to give full supply chain transparency. So that a patient or a nurse, if they scan the products that has been shipped to them, they’d be able to see information about where it came from, when it was delivered to our warehouse, when it was delivered to the end point,” said Laverick.
“Basically, we capture all of that information and it’s something that we make available through eZTracker.”
eZVax is a fully scalable solution that can be customized to suit the needs of any country or healthcare system. Zuellig is currently engaging in talks with Hongkong, Thailand, and Vietnam’s health authorities to implement eZVax in these locations.
