International Health Partners facilitates the distribution of medicine from healthcare providers to healthcare suppliers. Our mission is to serve those in need by providing long-dated and first-quality donated healthcare products. Yet such an agenda involves a variety of logistical challenges. While the transportation of goods entails difficulties in a variety of industries, the distribution of medicine is particularly challenging. Throughout our work, we therefore must be ever mindful of potential logistical obstacles which may have to be overcome.

One problem is temperature control which is needed not just for the shipping of medicine but for storage as well. If medicine, at any stage of the dissemination process, is stored in the wrong temperature, it will spoil. Furthermore, regulation needs to be followed, creating a logistical challenge, especially given the range of regulations in different countries, all of which must be abided by. As the logistics of planning shipping are themselves starting to become increasingly regulated, distributers are having an ever-harder time shipping medicine.

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Though temperature-controlled services for medicines are needed, this process is much easier in some parts of the world than others. Sara Pasquali, Logistics Officer for IHP, explained to us that, ‘most of the airlines flying to East Africa don’t offer such a service. We work in Somalia, a country with hot temperatures (an average temperature of 30 degrees Celsius), yet Mogadishu airport does not provide temperature control.’  This means that the temperature of our medicine needs to be checked before shipping and the consignee needs to clear and collect the shipment as soon as it arrives, which is difficult given the number of unforeseen circumstances which could prevent this from happening.  

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Furthermore, the providers which do offer temperature control often use a narrow body aircraft. Sara told us that the issue exists in the fact that ‘most distributors of medicine need to use a wide body aircraft which is rarely offered in the area. This problem affects IHP as our Essential Health Packs (EHPs) – two boxes, packed with 800 treatments of essential medicines to help treat patients in any setting – have a weight and dimension that cannot be changed, and which is not suited to a narrow body aircraft. Our EHPs must be appropriate for individuals as well as group shipments for partners meaning they need to be easily transported as well as cost-effective, yet the travel dimensions in East Africa make this much more difficult to achieve.’

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Another difficulty IHP faces is the need to abide by certain standards. In the medical field there are certain manufacturing standards which must be kept as well as particular distribution practises which must be followed. Known as good distribution practise (GDP), these standards and practises ensure that medicine is of an adequate quality and that, throughout the process of distribution, it does not get spoilt. The difficulty exists in analysis and evaluation and the time and effort this takes. When every process needs to be examined through this framework, it slows down the distribution of medicine, particularly if the GDP analysis needs to be done in a country we have not previously worked in where a disaster has just occurred. Though we may want to send medicine immediately into the country to respond to urgent need, it may be that several steps need to be taken to ensure we are GDP complaint, meaning that the process is slowed down beyond our control and despite our best efforts.  

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IHP has been investing in compliance by employing staff to fortify our GDP abidance, ensuring we provide quality healthcare to the vulnerable and disaster-hit communities we serve. Difficulties can still arise when responding to disasters in certain countries and while steps have been taken to amend the other challenges faced in shipping medicines, this landscape still remains one which is fraught with difficulties. However, we are not despondent. We are certain that these difficulties can all be overcome, provided that we remain proactive and continue allocating resources to areas of need.

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