* Programme to insure vaccine storage and transit
* Syndicate to begin underwriting in Jan 2021
* AXA XL to provide risk consulting services
(Adds executive comments, details)
By Noor Zainab Hussain and Carolyn Cohn
LONDON, Dec 15 (Reuters) - Lloyd's of London and insurtech
firm Parsyl have launched a programme to insure the distribution
of COVID-19 vaccines in emerging markets as drugmakers race to
address the biggest global logistical challenge since the Second
World War.
The Global Health Risk Facility (GHRF), made up of 14
insurers and reinsurers, has been set up to address the
challenges of transporting temperature-sensitive vaccines, and
will be supported by $26.7 million in funding from the U.S
International Development Finance Corporation, the companies
said on Tuesday.
The DFC loan will be used to capitalize a new public-private
Lloyd's syndicate, which will start operating in January, and
allow the GHRF to offer cost-effective insurance policies for
shipments of vaccines and medical products to developing
countries.
The GHRF will make available billions of dollars of
insurance coverage, the companies said https://www.lloyds.com/news-and-risk-insight/press-releases/2020/12/lloyds-and-parsyl-launch-insurance-initiative-for-distribution-of-covid-19-vaccines.
"As the world prepares to undergo the largest vaccination
programme in human history, ensuring the safe and effective
distribution of the vaccine is critically important in tackling
this global health emergency," said Lloyd's of London
Chief Executive Officer John Neal.
Several vaccine programmes are now seen as promising, but
budgetary constraints in paying for them and challenges in
storage and distribution cloud the outlook for many emerging
market economies such as Brazil, Mexico, Indonesia, India,
Russia and parts of Africa.
COVID-19 vaccine distribution is a headache for insurers,
who are concerned about the extra-cold temperatures required to
transport vaccines such as the one developed by Pfizer
and BioNTech, the first Western vaccine off the
drawing board.
"We've had already prior to launch overwhelming demand from
a variety of players - manufacturers to ministries of health and
also logistics companies from every corner of the globe," Ben
Hubbard, chief executive at Parsyl told Reuters.
The international police organization Interpol has issued a
global alert https://www.interpol.int/en/News-and-Events/News/2020/INTERPOL-warns-of-organized-crime-threat-to-COVID-19-vaccines
to law enforcement across its 194 member countries warning them
to prepare for organized crime networks targeting COVID-19
vaccines, both physically and online.
The GHRF programme will protect the quality of the goods and
the financial investments made to supply and distribute them at
a global level.
"It's just ensuring that we can get the viable vaccine
transported ... it's around the robustness of the supply chain,
which can be a challenge in some of these (emerging market)
countries," said Sean McGovern, chief executive, UK & Lloyd's
market at AXA XL.
As part of the programme, AXA XL is providing risk
consulting services.
Syndicate 1796, named to mark the year physician Edward
Jenner carried out his first experiments in what would become
the smallpox vaccine, is the first public-private partnership to
address a global health emergency in Lloyd's 330-year history,
the companies said.
Other participating insurers include Beazley, Chubb
and QBE.
(Reporting by Sinead Cruise and Carolyn Cohn in London and Noor
Zainab Hussain in Bengaluru, editing by Louise Heavens and
Bernadette Baum)