By Don Urquhart, Times-Chronicle
Local pharmacies in Osoyoos and Oliver are now getting resupplied through a combination of air and road freight as road-based supply chains remain challenged. Pharmaceutical supply chains were hastily reinvented to ensure a steady supply of medicine after the extreme weather event cut off the Interior from the Lower Mainland.
In the wake of the atmospheric river event which submerged, washed away and simply broke major transport corridors, pharmacies throughout the Interior suddenly found themselves without their daily deliveries. This included both front store items and vital pharmaceutical products.
Pam Davis, pharmacist and co-owner along with Jolly Gill, of Pharmasave Osoyoos, said there was nearly a 10-day period where they did not get any deliveries. “But now we are getting twice a week deliveries from our primary supplier which is in Vancouver. So, it seems to be working well, everything is getting back on track.
“We used to get five days a week delivery and now we’re down to two days a week but we’re getting stuff,” she adds.
The same situation was played out at pharmacies across the Okanagan although the Times-Chronicle understands that larger chains, like Shoppers Drug Mart are also supplied from Alberta which helped alleviate some of their supply chain disruptions. The Loblaws-owned company did not respond to the Times-Chronicle’s queries.
For Chris Waller, pharmacist/owner of Lakeside Medicine Centre Pharmacy in Kelowna and board member of the B.C. Pharmacy Association, as soon as he realized that all of the roads were closed he got on the line with the association. “I said this is going to be a problem because this is where all of our drugs come from and if we can’t get them then they are going to have to be flown in.”
As inventories began to run low, pharmaceutical shipments began arriving into Kelowna via air freight with trucks delivering to pharmacies throughout the Interior. Because of a shortage of air freight capacity between Vancouver and Kelowna, the province stepped in to block book capacity to ensure the supplies of medicine continued to flow.
Waller notes that in the earlier days of his career, air freight was standard. “We would get air freight in the morning and then there would be ground freight that would come later in the day. But for the last decade it’s basically been ground freight,” he says.
The South Okanagan had its own unique problems, Waller says. “I’ve got a couple of friends in the South Okanagan who are pharmacists and getting fridge items has been a real challenge for them.” These are items that are not returnable because there’s a cold chain element involved so if they are outside of that cold chain for too long they shouldn’t be used.
He gives the example of insulin which he highlights “diabetics, for the most part, can’t do without.” This meant carefully managing the supply to ensure there was enough “to go around.”
An additional challenge facing pharmacies in this part of the valley also involved controlled products like narcotics which require a signature chain the entire way from the wholesaler to the pharmacy, and the combination of air and road supply chain complicated this.
Due to the nature of how pharmacies are supplied, finding a solution ultimately ended up with the drug wholesalers. And Waller notes that “for the most part the wholesales have figured out how to get the stuff to where it needs to be.”
For Ralph Lai, general manager at uniPHARM Wholesale Drugs in Richmond, the disruption to the road network meant quickly finding solutions in order to keep retail pharmacy outlets stocked with medicine.
Solutions were found working in conjunction with the company’s courier partners and resulted in the company air freighting medicine into Kelowna, as well as using ground freight whenever the roads are open, Lai says.
In reference to the block-space booking of capacity on commercial carriers by provincial health authorities, Lai says it’s a service that is ‘essential.’ “I know some of the other wholesalers are using the freight service provided by the government and they service a lot of pharmacies as well, so it is important.”
“We were looking at using that but with the help of our partners – the couriers that we work very closely with – we were able to find solutions. So currently we don’t need to use that space and left it for those who don’t have a solution, who don’t have the capacity, because capacity is very limited.”
He adds that shipments will switch back to the road at any opportunity there is because “it’s costing way more to go by air than by ground route.”
Lai notes that temperature-sensitive pharmaceuticals pose specific challenges because of the limited time frame for transporting them between two locations. “We tested our routes, our new methods and it passed the test, it was very stable, therefore we are sending out refrigerated products with our partners,” he adds.
Other challenges included the need to identify their shipments so that the cargo handlers would know that the packages contain medicine to ensure they don’t get bumped off the plane, etc.
As to who will end up absorbing the extra costs of this airborne supply chain and whether consumers will ultimately pay a higher price, he says: “It’s still too early to know. “You’re talking about a week, week and a half so the final decision hasn’t been made yet.
“Right now we’re just focused on making sure that our stores are provided with the medications and whatnot, that’s the important part right now.”
Waller was similarly unsure of where the extra cost would fall. He notes that the provincial government controls the reimbursement on dispensing fees and drug costs but could not say whether this necessary switch to air freight would be covered.
The Provincial Health Services Authority (PHSA) told the Times-Chronicle that “goods and services to support delivery of health care continue to be a priority for the health system, particularly for our Supply Chain team and vendors.”
This includes using air travel (commercial and military) instead of trucks while roads in and out of the Lower Mainland are closed or have limited capacity, the PHSA spokesperson said.
“Ultimately, these costs will be covered by the health system. No discussions have been held at this stage to determine the details.”
The disruption to the supply chain didn’t just hit pharmacies though, it also hit the wholesalers as well. Lai noted that uniPHARM faced shortages of around less than 50 per cent in the first week and just over 15 per cent in the second week as suppliers switched to air supply chains rather than trucking.
