By Jared S. Hopkins
Health authorities, hospitals and pharmaceutical companies are
storing Covid-19 vaccines in secure, undisclosed locations and
taking other steps to protect the shots against a looming threat:
theft.
As the leading vaccine candidates advance closer to use, vaccine
makers such as Pfizer Inc. are deploying GPS software for tracking
distribution and plotting fake shipments in dummy trucks to confuse
criminals. Glassmaker Corning Inc. is equipping vials with
black-light verification to curb counterfeiting. And some hospitals
expected to be among the first vaccination sites are beefing up
their pharmacies' security systems.
The goal, industry and health officials say, is protecting the
shots against professional thieves who have a long history of
targeting valuable medicines, and have pilfered Covid-19 tests,
masks and other personal protective equipment during the
coronavirus pandemic.
"We are appropriately paranoid about anything that has to do
with either cybersecurity or physical security and we are taking
great precaution to ensure that these are safeguarded," Paul Mango,
deputy chief of staff for policy at the U.S. Department of Health
and Human Services, said in an interview.
The department has arranged for U.S. marshals to accompany
shipments of vaccines, which are currently stored at undisclosed
locations, once the shots are authorized for distribution, Mr.
Mango said.
Despite such measures, industry officials and logistics
specialists worry the shots could be vulnerable to theft at weak
links in the supply chain, such as distribution centers, truck
stops and hospitals with lax security.
Five large hospital systems and several states said in
interviews they are more focused on ensuring that enough people
take the shots and securing capabilities to store the vaccines at
the required extremely cold temperatures, than possible theft. They
added that they plan to use standard security steps, such as
locking the vaccines in pharmacies.
"They don't want to admit it's a problem," said Anna Nagurney, a
University of Massachusetts at Amherst professor who studies
supply-chain logistics. "It's another kind of expense for
them."
Leading Covid-19 vaccine candidates from Pfizer, Moderna Inc.
and other companies are in the final stage of testing. The shots
could be authorized as early as November or December, according to
Pfizer and Moderna executives.
Though drugmakers have been producing doses, initial supplies
are expected to be limited, making any shot a coveted
commodity.
Industry officials and experts are concerned they could be
intercepted by sophisticated criminals, foreign governments or
individuals eager to get vaccines before prioritized groups, such
as health-care workers.
"You are going to have people that will want to have access to
the vaccine earlier," said Juan Andres, chief of technical
operations at Moderna, which enhanced security at manufacturing and
storage facilities for its Covid-19 vaccine. "I do think that the
vaccine needs to be protected."
Over the past five years, world-wide incidents such as theft and
counterfeiting of pharmaceutical products rose nearly 70%,
according to the Pharmaceutical Security Institute, a trade
group.
Thefts happen during pandemics. In 2009, local police arrested a
man accused of stealing more than 900 doses of the H1N1 vaccine in
Milwaukee outside a school where officials administered the
vaccine, and later recovered the doses.
To protect Covid-19 shots, several states say manufacturers or
the federal government will ship the vaccine directly to hospitals
and other vaccination sites to reduce the number of road stops. In
Illinois, local health officials intend to secure the vaccine by
keeping just enough to be used within two days.
Vaccine makers plan to employ measures that in recent years have
helped reduce theft, including the use of empty so-called dummy
trucks to throw off thieves, industry officials and security
experts say.
Pfizer, which is shipping its vaccines in specially made,
temperature-controlled containers, will use GPS software to track
the location and temperature of the shots, to prevent unexpected
deviations, a spokeswoman said.
"The distribution at this scale of such a valuable product with
such high care is going to be a very significant challenge for the
industry," said Shabbir Dahod, chief executive of TraceLink Inc.,
whose technology is being used by some vaccine makers to track
their products in the supply chain.
United Parcel Service Inc. said it plans to use a tracking tool
that will tag shots the company is shipping so it can monitor them
within two meters of their location.
Premier Inc., a large group purchasing organization for
hospitals, is encouraging members to treat Covid-19 vaccines
similarly to controlled substances, which by federal law are
required to sit behind two different locks and be inventoried by
hand, said Soumi Saha, the company's vice president of
advocacy.
"High demand, completely low supply," she said of the vaccines.
"That means extremely lucrative for the black market."
As an added safeguard, Philadelphia's Jefferson Health hospital
system plans to keep temporary subzero freezers for storing
Covid-19 vaccines in rooms retrofitted with security cameras, cages
and keycard authorization, said Brian Swift, chief pharmacy
officer.
Some hospitals, however, say they don't plan on anything more
than standard security measures, such as storing vaccines in locked
pharmacies that require keycards to enter.
"The biggest thing I'm concerned about with the [Covid-19]
vaccine is storage," said Debbie Simonson, vice president of
pharmacy for Louisiana's Ochsner Health System, which purchased
more than two dozen subzero freezers and a dozen refrigerators.
"I'm not really worried about somebody trying to come in and take
them."
Relying on typical cyber safeguards might not be enough for
securing the vaccines, according to Kevin McDonald, a cybersecurity
consultant for MedSec. The freezers and refrigerators for storing
Covid-19 vaccines are especially vulnerable to cybercriminals, he
said, because such devices are hooked up to data networks and have
a mixed history of sound cybersecurity.
--Peter Loftus contributed to this article.
Write to Jared S. Hopkins at jared.hopkins@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
October 21, 2020 07:14 ET (11:14 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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