Industry leaders said that war in the Middle East is making it harder for critical medicines to get to the Gulf. Due to Supply chain disruptions, routes for critical & cancer drugs and other treatments that need refrigeration are in danger and forcing companies to change flight paths and also find ways to get into the region by land.
The conflict started a month back when the US and Israel attacked Iran. It has since spread to other parts of the region, shutting down important air transit hubs along with shipping routes. This has made it pretty hard for goods, including medicines, food, and oil, to transit.
Some executives said that even though there are not many signs of major shortages yet, that could as well change if the conflict goes on for a long time. The Gulf happens to depend pretty heavily on imports, and some medicines have short shelf lives and need to be stored in a strict cold chain, which makes long overland shipping less practical.
Executives from the Western drug companies said they were looking for other ways in order to get into the Gulf, such as trucking some drugs overland via airports in Saudi Arabia such as Jeddah and Riyadh. They could also go to Oman or Istanbul.
Strikes by Iran in response to US and Israeli attacks have shut down major airports in the region. Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Doha, to name a few. Dubai and Doha are important cargo hubs that connect Europe with Asia and Africa. Airlines such as Emirates and Etihad and logistics companies like DHL handle drugs that need to be kept at a certain temperature in order to stay safe and effective.
Wouter Dewulf, who is a professor at the Antwerp Management School, said that more than a fifth of the air cargo in the world, which is the main route for important or life-saving drugs and vaccines, is at risk of being disrupted in the Middle East.
One executive warned that it was not always possible to set up alternative cold-chain corridors, or temperature-controlled routes used for sensitive medicines, overnight, especially when supply routes for critical & cancer drugs are disrupted.
Another executive from a pharmaceutical company said that they had formed internal teams to prioritize shipments that were critical to patients, such as cancer treatments. They also warned that some temperature-controlled shipments might as well miss connections if they were not stored and handled properly.
An executive from a medical device company said that the first thing to do was to make a map of shipments that were already on their way or about to leave. Then, they had to figure out which pallets needed to be sent elsewhere and if new shipments needed to be planned.
The executive, who, like others, asked to remain anonymous to talk about how things work inside the company, said that some cargo that usually goes from Europe to Asia through Dubai or Doha airports was being sent through China or Singapore instead. Because of longer travel times and Iran closing the important Strait of Hormuz, sea routes were not possible.
The executive said, “If you have an urgent surgery with a patient waiting for treatment, you have to choose the faster mode of transport.”
Hospitals could run out of supplies in a few weeks
According to Prashant Yadav, who is a senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations, stocks of medicines that don’t last long, are sensitive to temperature, and cost more were usually around three months. Cancer drugs, especially monoclonal antibodies, were among the most at risk.
Patients can go on to suffer serious consequences if oncology medicines are not delivered on time. They may have to start their treatment all over again or their cancer may get worse.
Yadav said that the disruption was already causing problems for some businesses, and some customers warned that they might run out of supplies in four to six weeks if things did not get better.
Recently, over 100 people from the pharmaceutical and logistics industries took part in a webinar that was hosted by Pharma Aero, which is a life sciences logistics group. They discussed the Gulf crisis and how lead to supply chain disruptions and also transportation.
For now, the industry is doing okay
Some logistics companies say that the industry is doing okay for now. Dorothee Becher, who is in charge of healthcare air logistics at the freight company Kuehne+Nagel, said that carriers were indeed flying into Jeddah, Riyadh, and Oman and then taking land routes so as to get to their final markets.
She said, “I do not see any risk yet that the inventory would go dramatically down,” and also added that healthcare cargo was being given priority.
But it is always hard to keep shipments moving. Doaa Fathallah, who is the chief operating officer of Marken, the biopharma logistics company, said that cold-chain cargo was passing through, but only because airspace restrictions changed quickly and they had to reroute all the time.
She said that the re-routing would make the trips take longer and even cost more in fuel, which would raise transportation costs. She also said that dry ice would be used to keep medicines cold.
Executives said that the risks for the industry go up if the problems keep happening, since supplies in the Gulf and Asia are running low.
Shipping problems could also affect things that don’t directly threaten drug supplies, such as shortages of vial stoppers, IV bag plastics, and packaging materials.
David Weeks, who follows the supply chain industry for data and analytics company Moody’s said that “there’s not always a shortage of the medicine itself. In some cases, it’s the little stopper on the vial where the dosage is extracted.”
