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We started Project Chorus a few years ago to reimagine the way the world makes, moves and manages physical assets. The pandemic hit while we were exploring this space, and we felt the urgency of this work come into focus. Communities worldwide needed large quantities of perishable vaccines as fast as possible.
Our team wanted to help. We reached out to Healthcare Logistics (HCL), New Zealand’s leading pharmaceutical distributor, and offered to partner with them to get vaccines delivered quickly and safely. HCL and other cold chain logistics specialists all over the world were grappling with this unprecedented delivery challenge, which for New Zealanders included the management of 11 million critical vaccine doses.
The Chorus team at the HCL offices in New Zealand
The stakes were high. The vaccines required storage between 2-8° C when in transit. Even a short exposure to higher temperatures would render them unusable.
A safety mandate from the New Zealand Government in collaboration with the manufacturer stipulated that vaccines had to be transported from cold storage facilities to healthcare providers in under 12 hours. In a country where it typically takes more than 24 hours to deliver goods to the most distant corners—the mandate meant cold chain providers like HCL had to work faster than ever before.
In order for HCL to deliver the vaccines, they needed end to end cold chain visibility and the ability to guarantee that vaccine shipments were not compromised. This is exactly the kind of insight we could help with.
Before the pandemic, a sensor tracking the temperature of a pharmaceutical shipment would need to be physically sent back to HCL by a hospital or pharmacy in order to receive insight from the data it had gathered.
Chorus helped HCL obtain precise, real-time monitoring for the entirety of a vaccine shipment’s journey. The Chorus platform provided location and temperature data throughout transport, triggered alerts when a box was opened, and signaled shipment arrival as it happened. These real-time alerts enabled HCL to identify and manage potential risks immediately, ensuring packages had not been tampered with in transit, and re-deliver any vaccines if there was a temperature alarm to minimize any delays for clinicians and patients.
We made sure that the data lived real-time with HCL instead of on a sensor, so hospitals and pharmacies could contact them immediately to find out if the pedigree of the product was preserved.
This work helped HCL successfully deliver COVID-19 vaccines to over 1000 hospitals and clinics, enough for two shots for every single person in New Zealand.
Vaccine shipment locations and temperatures over the course of a day.
With new data and insights from Chorus, HCL was able to help the New Zealand Ministry of Health confirm its vaccine protocols, proving that even with the tighter shipment time mandate, delivery was working reliably and safely in the field.
The experience with Chorus has also helped provide HCL with insights to their distribution networks. For example, end-to-end visibility into which routes are the fastest that could support HCL in lowering emissions from delivery vehicles. They’re also developing new models for more effective cold chain shipping across New Zealand, especially as they anticipate more critical rollouts of high-value pharmaceuticals. Sophie Prentice, HCL’s GM, put it to me this way: “The more we learn from those rollouts, the better we’re able to design and structure efficient supply chains.”
We see this is just the beginning. We’re excited to connect with partners interested in pushing new boundaries across logistics, healthcare, food, and beyond. If you’re interested in exploring these areas with us, please get in touch.
