Dubai logistics giant DP World in alliance for global vaccine distribution

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – Dubai-based logistics company DP World has helped launch a vaccine logistics alliance to accelerate the delivery of Covid-19 vaccines worldwide.

More than a year after Covid-19 started to spread globally, the race to vaccinate began. More than 170 million vaccines have been administered in 77 countries, with Israel and the United Arab Emirates leading vaccination rates. Jabs were acquired by wealthy countries, leaving continents like Africa and South America in the dark on the road to a global recovery.

“We are going to roll out all the facilities we have, and our geographic distribution,” DP World President and CEO Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem told CNBC Hadley Gamble in an exclusive interview on Monday. “Whatever we have, we will implement it because this pandemic will not go away unless everyone is vaccinated,” said Sulayem.

DP World’s ports, terminals and logistics operations spanning six continents manage 10% of global trade, based on annual volumes of containers handled around the world. Initially founded as a local port operator, the company now has 90 locations in 60 countries.

The advantage of DP World, says its president, is the company’s access to remote areas and its ability to transport vaccines to places that many others cannot. The alliance will deploy the scope of Dubai, Emirates Group and Dubai Humanitarian City airports, all working to transport, store and distribute vaccines to the most remote corners of the globe.

These locations include DP World’s logistics center in Kigali, Rwanda, and a multifunctional port in Paramaribo, Suriname – to name two of the many on the continents of Africa and South America, respectively.

And the company’s home in Dubai, widely regarded as the region’s travel and business hub, prides itself on being close to two-thirds of the world’s population in just eight hours. “Dubai is one of the busiest airports with incredible connectivity across all airlines,” said Sulayem.

In addition to the Dubai logistics alliance, DP World will also lend its expertise to UNICEF to help distribute vaccines to low- and middle-income countries.

More than two-thirds of the vaccine doses available in the world have been collected by governments that represent just one sixth of the world population, leaving much of the developing world facing an indefinite period of no hope for Covid-19 vaccines for their populations.

“Africa has been left completely behind,” African billionaire and philanthropist Mo Ibrahim told CNBC last week. There is a “rising tide of what is called vaccine nationalism. All rich countries are struggling with each other to find out who may have the most vaccines,” said Ibrahim.

Sulayem of DP World also pointed out that vaccine nationalism can prolong the pandemic. “There are more than 12 billion vaccines produced, but 9 billion [are] already reserved by Western countries, which actually make up about 14% of the population, ”he said.

The pandemic has already claimed nearly 2.4 million lives and infected more than 108 million people, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University and the World Health Organization. The Dubai alliance will support WHO’s COVAX initiative – a separate alliance with the goal of providing vaccines to the world’s poorest countries – and their efforts to distribute 2 billion doses of Covid-19 vaccines equitably in 2021.

Dubai residents can apply for a Pfizer, AstraZeneca or Sinopharm vaccine. Bringing new jabs to the market requires country approval, including the implementation of clinical trials, something DP World told CNBC that could be underway.

“We are talking to Moderna. Moderna is new to this and its vaccine is good,” Sulayem said of the American pharmaceutical giant, whose injection was approved for use in the United States in December. He added that DP World is currently talking to Moderna about how and where the logistics company can help distribute its vaccine.

Moderna did not respond to a request for comment from CNBC.