Not Just Oil: Cancer Drug and Vaccine Logistics Also Affected by Middle East War
The hot conflict in the Middle East between the United States and Israel versus Iran threatens not only energy supplies but also the medical world. Air routes long relied upon for delivering critical medicines such as cancer drugs and vaccines are beginning to face paralysis.
The closure of major airports in the Gulf region, such as Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Doha, also endangers the smooth logistics of medicines. In fact, several of these airports are central facilities for the largest cold-chain systems that maintain the temperature of sensitive medicines to keep them effective until they reach patients.
Quoted from detikHealth, as reported by Reuters, the characteristics of modern cancer drugs and vaccines are highly dependent on temperature stability. As is known, medicines like monoclonal antibodies must not experience delivery delays due to their short shelf life and vulnerability to weather changes.
A global health expert from the Council on Foreign Relations, Prashant Yadav, warns that stocks of these sensitive and expensive medicines are typically only available for three months.
“If the situation does not improve within four to six weeks, cancer patients risk having to restart therapy from the beginning or face a fatal deterioration in condition due to interrupted treatment,” he said.
In such conditions, pharmaceutical companies are now forced to take riskier land routes. Medicines are flown to still-open airports like Jeddah or Riyadh in Saudi Arabia, then transported using refrigerated trucks across the desert.
Subsequent routes through Istanbul, Oman, and even Singapore are starting to be utilised. However, this strategy can cause logistics costs to skyrocket and increase the risk of drug damage due to longer travel times. Not only medicines, but vital components such as vial caps (medicine bottles) and plastic infusion bags are also beginning to face shortages due to disrupted shipping lanes.
The pharmaceutical industry is now racing against time, attempting to remap delivery routes before storage warehouses in various countries are completely empty.