Dubai logistics giant DP World in alliance for worldwide distribution of vaccines

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – Dubai-based logistics company DP World has helped establish a vaccine logistics alliance to accelerate the distribution of Covid-19 vaccines around the world.

More than a year after Covid-19 began to spread worldwide, the race to vaccinate has begun. More than 170 million injections have been given in 77 countries, with Israel and the UAE at the forefront of vaccination coverage. Jabs have been picked up by wealthy countries, leaving continents like Africa and South America in the dark on their way to a global recovery.

“We will leverage all the facilities we have and our geographic spread,” DP World Chairman and CEO Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem told CNBC’s Hadley Gamble in an exclusive interview on Monday. “Whatever we have, we’re going to use it because this pandemic won’t go away unless everyone gets vaccinated,” Sulayem said.

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

The advantage of DP World, the chairman said, is the company’s access to remote areas and the ability to transport the vaccines to places that many others say cannot. The alliance will leverage the reach of Dubai Airports, Emirates Group and Dubai Humanitarian City, all of which work to transport, store and distribute vaccines to more remote corners of the world.

Those spots include DP World’s logistics center in Kigali, Rwanda and a multi-functional port in Paramaribo, Suriname – just to name two on the continents of Africa and South America respectively.

And the company’s home base, 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 great connectivity across all airlines,” said Sulayem.

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

More than two-thirds of the world’s available vaccine doses have been scooped up by governments that represent only one-sixth of the world’s population, leaving much of the developing world facing indefinitely with no hope of Covid-19 injections for their populations.

“Africa has been completely abandoned,” 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 arguing among themselves about who can get more vaccines,” Ibrahim said.

DP World’s Sulayem also pointed out that vaccine nationalism could extend the pandemic. “More than 12 billion vaccines are produced, but 9 billion [are] already reserved by the western countries, which in fact make up about 14% of the population, ”he said.

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

Dubai residents can currently apply to take the Pfizer, AstraZeneca or Sinopharm vaccine. Bringing new injections to market will require country approval, including the implementation of clinical trials, something DP World has said CNBC could be in the pipeline.

“We’re talking to Moderna. Moderna is a newcomer to this and their vaccine is good,” said Sulayem of the US pharmaceutical giant, whose injection was approved for use in the US in December. He added that DP World is currently speaking with Moderna about how and where the logistics company can help distribute its vaccine.

Moderna did not respond to a CNBC request for comment.