A Cold Chain Built for Vaccine Transportation

A special container storing Russian vaccines is loaded into an Asiana Airlines cargo plane at Incheon International Airport on Dec. 29.

Asiana Airlines announced that it transported Russian COVID-19 vaccines produced in Korea to Moscow using a cargo airplane on Dec. 29. This marked the second time to transport the vaccines following the first shipment on Dec. 25.

The vaccines are Sputnik V vaccines developed in Russia. They were produced by Korean pharmaceutical company, Hankook Korus Pharm, which is a subsidiary of GL Rapha.

The vaccine requires storage at minus 20 degrees Celsius, so the company maintained a cold chain in the entire transportation process from the production plant to an airplane at Asiana Airlines' Incheon cargo terminal and to a freight terminal in Moscow.

"Through cooperation with five special container companies, we have built a cold chain that can transport vaccines at extremely low temperatures (-60 °C or below), freezing temperatures (-20 °C), and refrigeration temperatures (2 °C to 8 °C),” an Asiana official said. “Based on thorough preparations, we have successfully completed vaccine transportation, proving our expertise. When foreign vaccines are introduced to Korea in the future, we will do our best to safely transport them to the Korean people."

Meanwhile, Asiana Airlines obtained a CEIV Pharma certificate from the International Air Transport Association (IATA) in June 2019. The certificate proves its holder’s excellence in air transportation of drugs.

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