Wuhan, Hubei province-based Jointown Pharmaceutical Group Co Ltd plans to expand its distribution facilities and recruit more logistics employees in a bid to meet surging demand from COVID-19-related cold-chain shipments.

The company unveiled the plan after it signed an agreement with the Asian Development Bank for a private sector loan of up to 30 million euros ($37 million) on Thursday. German Investment and Development Corporation, or DEG, will co-finance the project with an additional 30 million euros.

The financing will support the construction and expansion of Jointown's facilities in Tangshan, Hebei province, as well as in Haikou, Hainan province, and Nanjing, Jiangsu province. These pharmaceutical distribution facilities will include cold chain warehouses for temperature-sensitive pharmaceutical products, including vaccines.

"The financing will help Jointown to expand its distribution capacity of medical supplies and medicines to hospitals and retail pharmacy outlets in underserved areas in China," said Suzanne Gaboury, director-general of the ADB's Private Sector Operations Department.

It was the second loan from the ADB to Jointown since the COVID-19 outbreak. In February 2020, the ADB lent 130 million yuan ($20 million) to the company to help with accessibility of essential medical supplies in China's rural areas.

"The new loan will contribute to the country's pharmaceutical capacity in further strengthening resilience against potential future pandemics," Gaboury said.

Liu Zhaonian, vice-chairman of Jointown, said that the financing cooperation, together with the help of the internet of things and block chain technology, will raise the company's medical distribution capacity and effectively serve the upstream and downstream sectors of the medical industry to help better guarantee people's livelihoods.

"With the loan facilities, we will be able to reach out to the broader population, including in second－and third-tier cities and rural areas, with essential medicines and medical supplies," Liu said.

He added that currently the pandemic has not been reversed yet worldwide, and the situation in China is also showing signs of a relapse.

"Now, the priority in the country is contagion prevention and control, and the priority of prevention and control is vaccinating as many people as possible. To this end, the cold-chain distribution of vaccines is our recent core task."

Jointown said it inked a deal in December with Beijing-based Sinovac Biotech Ltd, one of the country's COVID-19 vaccine providers, and started vaccine distribution on Jan 2. Vaccine distribution now covers more than 10 provinces and municipalities across the nation.

Previously, Jointown owned around 200 cold-chain trucks. To meet surging distribution demand, it procured an additional 52 trucks. To ensure safe distribution of vaccines, a 24-hour intelligent monitoring system was installed inside the cold-chain trucks.

"The internet-based system monitors temperature, humidity and the drivers' entire driving process inside the truck, sending visualized data back to the control center every few minutes. Each truck is equipped with two drivers so that they can drive in shifts to avoid fatigue driving.

"Currently, our 120-strong driver team is still not enough for COVID-19 vaccine distribution. We held an internal meeting on Jan 20 to discuss the recruitment of new drivers and management personnel. On Monday, new employees were in place," Liu said.

According to the National Health Commission, China started its COVID-19 vaccination program among target groups on Dec 15. By Jan 20, more than 15 million doses had been administered.

So far, vaccinations have been conducted in an orderly manner. In the next step, vaccinations will be gradually provided to the general public, said the NHC.