Gavi to make Parsyl’s quality assurance platform available in Uganda and Senegal to address last mile distribution challenge.
Abu Dhabi, 10 December 2018 – Vaccine supply chains in Uganda and Senegal will get a boost thanks to a new partnership between Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance and Parsyl Inc.
The partnership, announced today at a high-level conference for Gavi’s 2018 mid-term review, will use Parsyl’s advanced supply chain data platform to support Senegal and Uganda to track and monitor cold chain conditions while vaccines are being distributed within countries. Parsyl’s monitoring devices combined with its mobile application and web platform will provide, for the first time, near real time visibility of the entire vaccine supply chain.
“The global effort to ensure every child, no matter where they live, has access to lifesaving vaccines relies completely on having strong, reliable supply chains,” said Dr Seth Berkley, CEO of Gavi. “These precious vaccines can travel thousands of miles across the world to reach remote communities in Africa and Asia, but if they become too hot or too cold during that very last mile all the effort is for naught. That’s why this partnership with Parsyl is so important, ensuring that countries are using the latest technology to keep these vaccines effective.”
Vaccines need to be kept at a constant temperature to remain effective – if they become too hot or too cold they can be rendered useless within a matter of hours. Unreliable transportation systems and storage facilities in developing countries make it difficult to maintain the necessary conditions. According to a recent review by the journal Vaccine, approximately 37% of vaccines were exposed to temperatures below recommended ranges during storage in lower income countries.
Parsyl provides an easy way to collect and analyse data about supply chain conditions and transform it into insights about the integrity of sensitive products as they are shipped around the globe. Using a combination of proprietary wireless sensing devices and data analytics, Parsyl provides a solution that allows global health supply chain partners to answer critical questions about what happened to vaccines during shipment and storage, the causes and locations of any vaccine degradation, and what improvements can be made.
“Delivering effective vaccines to children in last mile communities is one of the hardest and most important global health challenges on the planet. It is what first inspired us to create Parsyl and what motivates our team every day. We are so proud to be working with Gavi to improve visibility and bring actionable insights to the critical challenge of global vaccine delivery,” said Ben Hubbard, Parsyl Co-founder and CEO.
Parsyl is already monitoring HPV vaccines funded by Gavi and the Government of Senegal that will reach over 1 million Senegalese girls in efforts to reduce rates of cervical cancer, a leading cause of cancer death among women in low- and lower-middle-income countries.
Since its inception in 2000, Gavi has helped developing countries to prevent more than 10 million future deaths through its support for routine immunization programs and vaccination campaigns. In 2017 alone, 65 million children were immunized in the poorest countries of the world with Gavi-supported vaccines.
This partnership is made possible by a combination of support from the Government of Canada, Unorthodox Philanthropy and the Gogel Family Foundation. To lead the new initiative, Parsyl appointed Souleymane Sawadogo, an expert in vaccine quality assurance and a former leader of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Africa operations where he established laboratory systems across the continent.
“Our priority as a foundation is to fund extraordinary ideas with high potential for social impact. We’re thrilled to be supporting Parsyl as it builds a sustainable business that can address major global health challenges and bring about lasting social change,” said Mark Lampert, trustee of Unorthodox Philanthropy and founder and CEO of biotech investment firm BVF Partners.
Gavi’s mid-term review, held in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (UAE) on 10-11 December, is a high-level conference celebrating Gavi’s progress and impact in the world’s poorest countries of the world. By the end of 2018, Gavi will have contributed to the immunisation of 700 million people and the prevention of more than 10 million future deaths. This has contributed to an acceleration in the decline of global under-five mortality rates and brought wider impact beyond immunisation.
As well as reviewing progress made since the last Gavi replenishment in Berlin in 2015, this high-level conference is also an opportunity to shape Gavi’s future and help overcome the challenges preventing children from receiving the full course of recommended vaccines. Immunisation is a cost effective and high impact intervention that is core to primary health care and provides a robust platform to deliver better health for all.
