Moderna/IBM partner for smarter COVID-19 vaccine management

With ambitions to support smarter COVID-19 vaccine management, Moderna and IBM have begun collaborating to explore technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain and hybrid cloud that can help to pilot open, standardised, technology enabled vaccination distribution approaches for visibility and real time tracking.

Initial plans for the collaboration

The overall aim of the collaboration project is to accelerate secure, information sharing between governments, healthcare providers, life science organisations and individuals. 

"Moderna is committed to working with a coalition of partners to increase education and awareness of the importance of vaccination to help defeat COVID-19. We look forward to working with IBM to apply digital innovations to build connections between organizations, governments, and individuals to instill confidence in COVID-19 vaccines," commented Michael Mullette, VP, Managing Director North America Commercial Operations of Moderna. 

Initial plans include exploring the use of IBM’s capabilities in the US for:

• Vaccine management solutions for end-to-end traceability, addressing potential supply chain disruptions
• A digital health pass solution built on blockchain technology to help individuals to control their personal health information which can be verified, trusted, and shared securely.

From the outset of the pandemic, IBM joined the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy alongside other technology companies as part of the COVID-19 High Performance Computing Consortium. It also offered its IBM Clinical Development (ICD) solution to eligible trial sponsor organisations to help address the pandemic. 

"If ever there was a time to rally around open technology and collaboration, it's now. As governments, pharmacy chains, healthcare providers and life sciences companies continue to scale and connect their tools, and as new players enter the supply chain, open technology can help drive more transparency and bolster trust, while helping to ensure accessibility and equity in the process," added Jason Kelley, Managing Partner, Global Strategic Alliances Leader for IBM.

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