July 21st, 2021 Delft, Netherlands – It’s been more than a year now, and we are still fighting the Covid-19 crisis all around the globe. The pandemic is creating health, economic and social crises and these scars will not leave our society for a long time considering the impacts on our behaviors and lifestyles. After all the suffering, though, vaccines are now having an incredibly positive impact on infection rates.
Following vaccines positive outcomes, the Pharmaceutical industry is running to create enough vaccines to immunize the population globally. Unfortunately, as estimated by a meta-analysis published, around 14% to 35% of delivered vaccines are subject to inappropriate storage temperature, thus getting spoiled and thrown away.
Generally speaking, vaccines should be stored at +2°C to +8°C from the manufacturer’s point of origin to the point of vaccination. In few exceptions, however, the temperature might be even lower: Covid-19 vaccine requires deep freeze conditions, as it will need to be stored at -75°C (103°F). This is the reason why the temperatures to which vaccines are exposed must be monitored, recorded, and reported throughout all the steps of the vaccine supply chain.
Considering the effect of heat on their potency, refrigerated and frozen vaccines must maintain their optimal holding temperature throughout the cold chain. Exposure to inappropriate conditions can negatively affect potency of any refrigerated vaccine, as well as of any freezed one. Transportation is the main step of the supply chain where temperature and vaccine efficacy can be subject to change.
This challenge is even more complicated due to particular geographical conditions that characterize some countries, such as Indonesia, and which makes it difficult to deliver vaccines. Indonesia is an archipelagic country with more than 13,000 islands and a population of more than 273 million. This condition makes it very challenging to deliver the vaccine throughout all of the area.
For this reason, Everynet, in collaboration with Telkom Indonesia and its partners, worked to provide its LoRaWAN network solutions to track and monitor the temperature of the vaccines to decrease incidence of waste, improve customer confidence and increase effective inoculation rates.
Everynet and Telkom Indonesia focused on the creation of a specific Insulated Vaccine Carrier provided with a sensor that monitors the location and temperature inside and eventually communicates problems or misusage, avoiding potentially inconsistent and unreliable data.
The box is made in plastic and has a screen on top that contains the sensors. Once the vaccine bottles are placed into the Box, the device starts working as soon as the activation button in pressed in the linked application. On the same platform, it is possible to control vaccines’ location and temperature.
Everynet’s and Telkom Indonesia’s Insulated Vaccine Carrier offers an end-to-end system that gathers a continuous and consistent data stream in real-time. A notification is sent whenever an anomaly in the data stream is detected in order to allow for immediate corrective actions.
Everynet and Telkom Indonesia support the Insulated Vaccine Carrier wireless and automated monitoring system through their LoRaWAN national network. Leveraging existing national network is the best option to avoid expensive front-end investments related to infrastructure build-up and maintenance while maintaining the highest security levels and quality of connection.
Overall, the solution is cost-efficient and allows to have safer vaccines decreasing the waste of this precious resource.
To receive more information, contact us.
ABOUT EVERYNET
The Global Leader in Neutral Host, Ultra Low Cost IoT Connectivity
Everynet BV is a global LoRaWAN network operator and provides carrier grade networks in Asia, EMEA, and the Americas. Everynet’s Neutral Host network model enables Mobile Network Operators, MVNO’s, and Global MSP’s to offer ultra-low cost IoT immediately and profitably with ZERO upfront CAPEX. Everynet makes IoT accessible across any industry to enable enterprise-grade solutions and is deployed using LoRaWAN technology, the globally adopted open standard for IoT connectivity.
For more information, visit www.everynet.com
ABOUT TELKOM INDONESIA
PT Telkom Indonesia (Persero) Tbk (Telkom) is a state-owned information and communications technology enterprise and telecommunications network in Indonesia. The Government of Indonesia is the majority shareholder with 52.09 percent shares while the remaining 47.91 percent shares belong to public shareholders. Telkom’s shares are traded on the Indonesian Stock Exchange (IDX) where it is listed as “TLKM” and on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), which lists it as “TLM”. www.telkomiot.com