NEUILLY-SUR-SEINE, FRANCE-- January 07, 2021 -- Bureau Veritas, a world leader in testing, inspection, and certification, and OPTEL, a leading global provider of pharmaceutical supply chain traceability platforms, join forces to address the critical issue of reliability and traceability in COVID-19 vaccine logistics chains.

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In the next few months, billions of doses of COVID-19 vaccines will need to be rapidly and safely administered to people around the world. The complexity of cold chain conditions, the timeliness of delivery as well as the need to mitigate risk of any deviation are identified as critical challenges for successful large-scale vaccination.

V-TRACE is an integrated solution designed to track and trace COVID-19 vaccines, while ensuring risk mitigation thanks to controls and inspections all along the logistics chain. V-TRACE provides a global control of the supply chain thanks to the local presence of inspectors in the field.

Didier Michaud-Daniel, CEO, Bureau Veritas, commented:

“The priority for all governments and private institutions is to ensure that vaccine doses are safe and secure. This means tracking and tracing vaccines along the supply chain. Bureau Veritas’ experience in independent inspections along the supply chain to control inventories, storage and logistics conditions complements OPTEL’s ability to provide real-time traceability information. By combining our respective expertise, we are able to provide a single solution to control and mitigate risk throughout the logistics chains. Building on almost 200 years of expertise in shaping trust between companies, governments and society at large, Bureau Veritas is proud to partner with OPTEL to ensure the health and safety of people around the world.”

Louis Roy, Founder and CEO, OPTEL Group, added:

“The COVID-19 vaccine distribution is an unprecedented challenge for nations across the world. To successfully address this challenge, nations will need transparency at every level of the supply chain. This is precisely what OPTEL’s traceability platform has been built for, over the last three decades. OPTEL is proud to be joining forces with Bureau Veritas to bring complete visibility and certainty to the distribution of vaccines. As the leader in digital traceability, our mission is to use our technologies to create a better world. We know our traceability technologies combined with the expertise of Bureau Veritas can make a difference to overcome this historical challenge.”

Thanks to this partnership, OPTEL and Bureau Veritas are able to offer a combined expertise that is unrivalled in the pharmaceutical industry and in supply chain assurance.

V-TRACE is a unique integrated solution providing Governments with:

· VISIBILITY to control their vaccine orders all along the logistics chain in one single control tower, ensuring the traceability of every batch of vaccines.
· COMPLIANCE of vaccine batches through verified collected information on storage and distribution conditions all along the logistics chain.
· ASSURANCE that their vaccines are well stored, transported and conserved, in particular assurance that cold chain requirements are met, with temperature verification performed by Bureau Veritas’ inspectors along the logistics chain.