Hyderabad, Oct 27 (IANS): Hyderabad-based Medihauxe Pharma Pvt Ltd on Tuesday announced that it is fully geared up to handle, store and distribute COVID-19 vaccine in both Telangana and Andhra Pradesh as and when the vaccine is made available.
If making Vaccine available is one challenge, then delivering it to masses is another big challenge. According to Girish Bhat and P. Manohar, MD and Director of Medihauxe Pharma, the scale of adult vaccination distribution is so vast that such a scale of distribution was not done before.
Girish and Manohar, both said that they have experience and expertise in handling temperature sensitive specialty medicine and cold chain pharma products, their storage and handling.
"Our facility is the state-of-the-art one and the warehouse infrastructure is one of the best in the country. We are equipped with the latest technology, coupled with time-tested systems, agile management to ensure world class service," the company said.
Girish Bhat said the 25-year-old firm that deals with critical care, life-saving super specialty drugs distribution, has all requisite infrastructure such as cold chain, walk-in-cold rooms and data loggers.
Medihauxe Pharma is the distributor of over 3,000 super specialty products, most of which are life-saving and some are rare. It currently deals with medicine categories such as cancer, liver, lung, kidney and cardiac transplants. Its facilities are audited by international pharma majors.
Currently the turnover of the company is Rs 180 crore and has 120 employees. They said many private and government organizations have been visiting Medihauxe Pharma for a study tour to understand its facilities.
The whole world is look at pharma companies for the vaccine while India is looking at Hyderabad, as four out of six vaccine makers in the country are based here. "As we are nearing to the vaccine, companies and the government machinery is looking at Medihauxe Pharma for its delivery in Telugu states as we have proven track record," adds Girish Bhat.
Polio vaccine aimed at kids was done over several years. Corona vaccine is a different kind of a ball game. Unlike Polio vaccine which can be administered by ASHA workers and others, Corona vaccine is intramuscular injection and more experienced healthcare workers such as nurses are required to administer it.
Girish believes that people may most likely need two doses. The double doses of vaccine with a gap of one month in between may add more complexity to the distribution, he observed.
Another huge challenge will be availability of medical devices such as auto disposable syringes, needles required for the delivery of the vaccine. While demand is more, the supply is not in commensuration with the demand as companies have been working with far fewer resources, said Girish.