Hope Consortium, an Abu Dhabi-led public-private partnership that is carrying out bulk delivery of Covid-19 vaccines globally, is now utilizing an internally developed “mUnity” system that will ensure full visibility, safety, security, and distribution of the vaccines.

mUnity is developed by Maqta Gateway, a subsidiary of Abu Dhabi Ports’ digital technologies and a founding member of the Hope Consortium. It is a custom-built patented digital system that utilizes blockchain technology to track and trace sourcing of Covid-19 vaccine, their storage, shipment, and all data in real-time at all times of the vaccine journey. The system has magnificent end-to-end visibility of every vaccine, starting right from the manufacturing facility, to their arrival at different vaccination centers in the UAE as well as worldwide.

Dr. Omar Najim, Executive Office Director at the Department of Health Abu Dhabi, said, “With the launch of mUnity, the Hope Consortium, from its hub in Abu Dhabi, continues to cement its position as a premier platform for helping the world overcome the global pandemic safely and effectively. With the global demand already outstripping available supplies, vaccines are becoming not only a precious commodity from a healthcare value perspective but also from a financial and security point of view. mUnity will provide an added layer of protection thereby ensuring that vaccines arrive in the right place, at the right time, to the right people and in the right conditions.”

“Transporting, storing, and delivering vaccines is one of the most challenging and specialized logistical processes in normal circumstances. With the pandemic, the Hope Consortium is taking on the added challenge of managing the complexities of transporting the much-needed Covid-19 vaccines, due to their strict temperature requirements. Maqta Gateway’s solution allows all Consortium partners to maintain visibility and drive vital decisions on temperature integrity, demand planning and security of vaccines, wherever they are in the world.”

Maqta Gateway has developed mUnity to be secure and flexible to support hundreds of millions of transactions, leveling up to 18 billion vaccine doses that are aimed to be distributed by 2021 end by the Hope Consortium. The system can adapt to different vaccine journeys and vaccine characteristics, and specific requirements of stakeholders. The Hope Consortium is an excellent example of how “team Abu Dhabi” is showing the advantage of collaboration with its various public-private and partners.

Dr. Noura Al Dhaheri, Head of the Digital Cluster at Abu Dhabi Ports and CEO of Maqta Gateway, said, “mUnity is built upon the tried and tested digital technology that we developed originally for managing marine shipments and port communities. In order to manage the safe and secure distribution of vaccines worldwide, mUnity incorporates blockchain technology, which enables efficient management of data, transparency, and also provides sophisticated defense against the threat of criminal activity.”

“With mUnity, Maqta Gateway serves as a key enabler of one of the world’s largest supply chain efforts of its kind to date, supporting the Hope Consortium in the timely and equitable global distribution of Covid-19 vaccines. The system has managed and tracked all Covid-19 vaccine supplies delivered to, and through, Abu Dhabi so far, and serves as an example of how Abu Dhabi’s public-private partnership is helping solve the challenges of the global pandemic.”

Right from manufacturers to end-users, the vaccine journey includes ensuring safety and assessing security risks at every step. Shippers, airlines, and storage facilities utilize data in different formats. The pharmaceuticals import and export is strictly regulated and controlled, with rules and requirements changing as per the source and recipient country. Covid-19 vaccines are temperature-sensitive and have specific handling and storage requirements. Any failure to follow it can make them ineffective.

mUnity’s blockchain is capable to address all these risks by providing tamper-proof and real-time updates on all the storage and handling of vaccines along the Hope Consortium’s supply chain, which includes vaccine storage levels, temperature controls, stock levels, and quantities of ancillary supplies. Each transaction of the vaccine is documented on the blockchain. mUnity helps the Consortium ensure compliance of all protocols from the manufacturing plant to the final destination of vaccine, with intact and reliable relevant information of vaccines. Furthermore, the data by mUnity will also address vaccine wastage.

The Hope Consortium is a UAE-based public-private partnership that was established to deliver vaccines by end of 2021and is comprised of six founding global and Abu Dhabi-based supply chain players. Immediately after formation, the Consortium added many leading international freight forwarders including Agility, Aramex, Hellmann, and Kuehne + Nagel, to boost its logistics capabilities. Since its establishment in November 2020, the Hope Consortium has already sourced, stored, and distributed millions of vaccine doses worldwide. Since its establishment in 2016, Maqta Gateway has processed over 30 million transactions related to marine shipments.

 WAM