42 New products/ MGA Lloyd’s Lab Impact Report 43 A new strategy for insuring With this insight in mind, delivering that innovative insurance was the objective behind Parsyl’s launch of life-saving vaccines the new Global Health Risk Facility (GHRF), anchored Cohort 1, 2018 by their ‘Syndicate in a Box’, which serves as the market’s dedicated risk facility for COVID-related transit and storage risks in the developing world. As a nod to the long history of the global 昀椀ght for In the e昀昀ort to vaccinate the world against COVID-19, vaccination, the Syndicate was given the number ‘1796’ in honour of the year physician Edward Jenner carried out his 昀椀rst experiments into developing the developing an e昀昀ective vaccine was only the beginning. smallpox vaccine. We also faced the daunting task of distributing billions of doses, which requires a complex and robust Ben explains what the team managed to put in place. transportation programme that could reach all corners of the globe, regardless of the quality of the local “In the GHRF, Syndicate 1796 will be backed with infrastructure. capital from the U.S International Development Finance Corporation, allowing it to share risks with leading This is particularly challenging when you’re dealing with cargo syndicates and make better, fairly priced a fragile vaccine that requires speci昀椀c temperature and coverage available in low to upper middle-income storage protocols to remain e昀昀ective. countries. The GHRF o昀昀ers ‘All Risk’ cargo coverage for transit and storage risks on all global health The team at Parsyl, who already o昀昀ered data-driven products related to COVID-19 and any other infectious insurance coverage for perishable goods, recognised disease control and prevention programmes.” that a new strategy for insuring these life-saving vaccines and other health commodities was essential Importantly, the GHRF also o昀昀ers coverage, via direct to enable global health supply chains to meet the insurance or reinsurance, for in-country risks to ensure challenge and a昀昀ord the risk of distribution. “ We’ve seen Lloyd’s stand behind risks to vaccines and other commodities were protected as they were stored in central warehouses and travelled Parsyl CEO Ben Hubbard explains: “Previously, some of the world’s greatest achievements through health systems to the last mile. The focus was insurance for global health commodities has been and innovations. We asked, why not find a very much on supporting countries where the help was fragmented, expensive and di昀漀cult to source. most needed, and GHRF backed the global distribution Insurance contracts sometimes don’t cover risks way to stand behind the largest vaccine of products to developing countries. associated with the sudden changes that can occur campaign in human history.” during a pandemic or other global health emergency. This unique partnership was a real demonstration of When insurance is available, it is limited to global Ben Hubbard - CEO, Parsyl the boldness and ingenuity the Lloyd’s market can transits and once ownership of goods transfers to local bring to help address a global health emergency. Not partners, it is often too hard for them to 昀椀nd insurance only was the risk-sharing programme unique, but the that they can a昀昀ord.” creation of a public-private syndicate to address a global health emergency was the 昀椀rst in the 330-year Ben and his team realised that the status quo would be history of Lloyd’s. a real inhibitor for the movement of COVID-19 vaccines – and that this would only add to the existing COVID-19 was of course the biggest focus. Ben challenges of rising insurance costs, increasing freight realised that “once a COVID-19 vaccine became costs, and reduced air and ocean transport capacity available, it would be critical that we protect and deliver that occurred as a result of the pandemic. every dose. Doing this required us to innovate, working with all our market partners, and use our combined expertise and strong partnerships to take a completely In addition, other critical vaccine programmes (e.g. new approach to this speci昀椀c insurance - one that can measles and polio) in many developing countries had complement the manufacturing and distribution been halted because of COVID-19. These urgently objectives of major COVID-19 vaccine development needed to be restarted, despite the pandemic-imposed e昀昀orts.” challenges in transport and insurance. “We saw that a combined e昀昀ort across public and private partners in Hubbard continued, “We’ve seen Lloyd’s stand behind cargo insurance and technology was needed to risks to some of the world’s greatest achievements and uniquely understand and share risk so that life-saving innovations. We asked, why not 昀椀nd a way to stand vaccines and health products could be safely delivered behind the largest vaccine campaign in human wherever they were needed.” history?” © Lloyd’s