As Canada prepares for COVID-19 vaccines, ultra-low-temperature freezers are selling out fast

Business, Paul Greco admits, has been booming.

In the month or so since Pfizer announced the world’s first successful , sales of the ultra-low-temperature freezers needed to store it have taken off.

“We basically sold as many in the two weeks after Pfizer’s announcement as we would all year. We’re sold out and waiting for our next shipment,” said Greco, president of Schomberg-based 360 Medical, the Canadian distributor of Haier Biomedical, a Chinese manufacturer of medical devices.

Normally, says Greco, his company would sell 40 or 45 over the course of a year. Those ULT freezers the Pfizer vaccine requires, which go as low as -90C, cost roughly $8,500 apiece for three cubic feet — about the size of a hotel fridge.

His next shipment, from Haier’s factory in Qingdao, China, is expected to arrive by the end of the month, with another 48 of the freezers.

Ordinarily, they’d already be here, waiting to be shipped out to buyers like hospitals or local public health units. But getting cargo shipped pretty much anywhere in the world right now isn’t easy. You can thank COVID for that, said Greco.

“Nobody was shipping anything from March through May. Now everyone’s trying to clear the backlog in every single industry at once. It usually takes 30 days to get things from the factory door to our warehouse. Now it’s taking 45 to 60,” said Greco, who estimates his company controls five to 10 per cent of the Canadian market.

Still, he doesn’t worry about his customers — or those of his competitors — getting their hands on freezers and fridges for storing vaccines.

“COVID is such a big priority for the federal government right now, that if they needed to, I could see them asking the Royal Canadian Air Force to send a plane over to pick stuff up if it came to that. I’m sure everyone will get the freezers and fridges they need,” said Greco.

Alex Esmon, a senior director at U.S.-based medical equipment maker Thermo Fisher, says Canadian customers have continued to snap up the company’s ULT freezers, as well as fridges for storing vaccines.

“Some institutions are preparing for every eventuality, so they’ll get a fridge, a minus-20 freezer and a ULT freezer too,” said Esmon. The Thermo Fisher ULT freezers range from a $6,000, one-cubic-foot mini-fridge the size of a vaccine-shipping container, to a standup fridge worth $14,000.

Thermo Fisher’s two factories, in Ohio and North Carolina, have been up and running all year, said Esmon.

“Because we’re essential, we’ve been able to stay open this whole time and continue producing for our customers, and still keeping our staff safe,” said Esmon.

Despite the high demand, Esmon doesn’t anticipate any issues supplying Canadian customers.

“We’re trying not to be one of the bottlenecks,” Esmon said.

Fraser Johnson, a supply chain and logistics professor at Western University’s Ivey School of business, agreed that medical supplies — especially anything related to COVID vaccines — are a priority for governments around the world right now. But other manufacturers are struggling to get their products shipped on time, particularly from factories in Southeast Asia to North America and Europe, Johnson said.

“It’s everything. Consumer products, car parts. It’s all coming over at once. The price of shipping containers has doubled since August,” said Johnson.

For large retailers or manufacturers, the situation is less tricky, because they often have long-term contracts with shipping companies. If they don’t, they can flex their buying power, Johnson said.

“For the Walmarts of the world, this isn’t as big of an issue, because they’ve got more relationships, and because of their scale, they have more leverage. But if you’re a small company and call up a shipping broker to say ‘I’ve got one shipping container that I need sent,’ you’re going to have a much harder time,” said Johnson.

For now, Pfizer itself is shipping its vaccine from points as close as possible to the sites where it will be used. During international flights, and until it reaches those “points of use,” it will be stored in what the company is calling thermal shippers, basically a box filled with dry ice.

From there, the vaccine can be stored in the shippers for up to 15 days by adding more dry ice; the vaccine can also be stored in ULT freezers for up to six months. For up to five days, the vaccine can be stored in refrigerators.

With files from Alex Boyd