Throughout the second half of 2021, and to the present time, PLASA has worked closely with the government, the ICPA and Medikredit to set up a mechanism, whereby PLASA members would assist the government by distributing Covid 19 vaccines to outlying rural areas. Unfortunately, a number of obstacles prevented this from happening.

The problem created by manufacturers of restricting minimum orders to excessively large trays, or batches of vaccines, made it impractical for most wholesalers to stock, pick, pack and then distribute relatively small volume orders to outlying areas.

This would have forced wholesalers to hold excessively large inventories which, in turn, posed the problem of overstocking and having vaccines expire.

Added to this is a complex pricing mechanism which makes it economically challenging to provide a viable vaccine delivery service for the logistics fee offered, particularly to outlying areas.

As the Covid 19 pandemic thankfully recedes, and fewer vaccinations are administered, so too the above problems of obligatory large minimum orders are aggravated. Nevertheless, PLASA will continue trying to negotiate a feasible logistics fee with both government and vaccine suppliers.

Hopefully, our members will then be encouraged to provide an efficient vaccine delivery service to outlying areas.