By Chris Price, Chief Executive Officer, Agility Global Integrated Logistics

• When the pandemic dies down, trade protectionism will become the biggest threat to global supply chains.
• This will both drive up prices and make resiliency harder to achieve.
• Accelerated digitalization and uptake of new technologies can help firms find a balance between supply chain resiliency and efficiency.

Seven months into the COVID-19 pandemic, businesses of all kinds are devising ways to protect themselves from future shocks by making their supply chains more resilient. In doing so, they need to guard against the mistake of preparing for the last battle rather than the coming one.

At some point, hopefully soon, the unprecedented global response to COVID-19 will reduce it to a manageable threat that allows us to return to something approximating normalcy in our personal and professional lives.

When that occurs, the greatest immediate and long-term risk to supply chains won’t be a virus. It will be trade protectionism, which was resurgent even before the COVID crisis, and now threatens to choke off the lifeblood we need to speed us toward recovery.

As recently as 2016, trading nations were erecting fresh barriers – subsidies, tariffs, quotas, licensing requirements and other obstacles – at twice the rate they were adopting measures to liberalize trade, according to Global Trade Alert. By 2018, new obstacles outpaced liberalizing steps by three to one. Last year, the ratio was four to one, and the value of global merchandise trade fell by 3%, the first decline since 2015.

Since the start of the COVID-19 crisis, we have seen protectionism intensify. Some emergency moves are clearly temporary. They were put in place by governments to ensure access to the medicines, machines and protective equipment required to contain or treat the virus. In other cases, the aim was to guarantee adequate food supplies for local populations.

Yet these new measures and others have been taken against a backdrop of simmering trade tensions between the world’s two largest economies, the US and China, and a growing chorus of voices in the US, Germany and other countries calling to re-shore, nationalize or find alternative sources for key products and industries such as 5G wireless equipment, semiconductors, steel, electrical power gear, mobile cranes, rare earth minerals and other goods.

The 164-nation World Trade Organization (WTO), normally the body that would quell trade wars and bolster the global consensus for free trade, has been weakened, perhaps fatally, by a loss of faith in its dispute resolution system and the apparent withdrawal of US support.

“In the current alternate universe we’re living in, global trade is collapsing and the WTO and the liberal order itself are in a true existential crisis,” Bloomberg noted in June.

As economies around the world emerge, unevenly, from the pandemic, we can expect demand to begin to strengthen. As it does, trade flows, carrier schedules and inventory levels will start to normalize, and supply and demand will find a new equilibrium.

But normalization won’t mean a return to normal. The World Bank expects a 5.2% contraction in global GDP in 2020. Advanced economies could shrink by as much as 7%, although they are likely to recover faster than economies in emerging or developing countries, the bank says.

Trade, which has accounted for 54% to 60% of global economic activity in recent years, is set to retreat even further. The WTO forecasts a drop in global trade flows of 13% to 32% in 2020. UNCTAD expects trade to decline by 20%. For context, the largest quarterly decline in trade volume during the 2008 financial crisis was 5%.

The new wave of protectionism, which includes a sharp rise in the use of international economic sanctions and penalties, will significantly increase the cost of goods at a time when we are experiencing historic levels of joblessness, poverty, and business failures on every continent.

Protectionism is likely to make supply chain resiliency harder to attain, not to mention more costly.

The first step toward resiliency is diversification of sources and suppliers. For many, that means reducing reliance on China, which accounts for 28% of global manufacturing.

Yet the economic trauma caused by COVID-19 will shrink the universe of suppliers, not expand it. And new layers of protectionism will leave companies with even fewer choices of supply because they will rob efficient producers – in China and elsewhere – of their competitiveness and make them too expensive.

Simply uprooting from China is not as easy as it seems. Forty years after it began modernizing, China today holds advantages available nowhere else: unmatched scale; abundant skilled and unskilled labour; sophisticated automation, engineering and sciences; world-class infrastructure and logistics; closely synchronized and integrated supplier networks both in-country and across Asia. Twenty-five years ago, leaving China meant leaving a low-cost manufacturing centre. Today, it would mean giving up on the world’s largest consumer market and an economy growing at twice the rate of the US before the COVID-19 crisis.

Other attempts to build resiliency also defy easy answers. For instance, businesses that see the pandemic as a reason to beef up future inventory through the addition of “safety stock” will probably think differently when the historically low cost of capital begins climbing.

Once the COVID-19 threat recedes, businesses across virtually all industries will have to find a new balance between efficiency and resiliency, because the latter carries a cost. Rather than trying to ‘deglobalize’ or shorten the physical length of far-flung supply chains, they should consider the resiliency offered by accelerated digitalization and deeper integration of technology.

From its earliest days, the pandemic separated digital leaders from laggards. Leaders had tools that gave them accurate visibility into supplier status, orders, shipments and inventory. They could make data-driven decisions quickly because they had trusted supply chain partners – especially freight forwarders and third-party logistics providers (3PLs) – sharing fresh information in near real-time and hunting down available production and shipping capacity. Laggards floundered and continue to flounder.

One obvious lesson from the pandemic is that digital capabilities such as predictive modelling, big data and partner integration are driving business flexibility. When things are relatively stable, those digital capabilities provide a competitive advantage. In times of disruption, they give companies the ability to optimize schedules, ports, modes, vendors and other variables, adjusting on the fly to events that could otherwise prove calamitous, even ruinous.

True resiliency means being ready for any kind of disruption: political, economic, cyber, conflict-based or, yes, pandemic-related. Knowing where to find it is what will separate tomorrow’s leaders from laggards.

Originally published on the World Economic Forum’s Agenda blog.

Global Response Aid and Dr. Reddy’s to sell premium original version of anti-viral drug

DUBAI – September 10, 2020 – Global Response Aid (GRA) and Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories will begin selling the anti-viral drug Avigan® in Indonesia following a recent decision by the country’s National Agency of Drug and Food Control (NA-DFC) to approve the drug’s active ingredient, Favipiravir, for treatment of patients infected with COVID-19.

The approval by Indonesia’s national medicines regulator follows a similar decision in August by the medicines regulatory body of India, the Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO), which approved Avigan® as a treatment for patients infected with Coronavirus.

Avigan® was developed as an influenza anti-viral by FujiFilm, which has licensed GRA and Dr. Reddy’s to manufacture, distribute and commercialize the drug globally. Clinical trials of the drug have been conducted and are underway in the United States, Japan, China, the Middle East and other countries, where it is being used to reduce fevers and shorten recovery time in patients who receive Avigan® in the early stages of infection with COVID-19.

Throughout the pandemic, the governments of Indonesia and Japan have been collaborating on the search for effective treatments and other challenges. In May, the Japanese government delivered more than 12,000 Avigan® tablets to Indonesia for use in fighting COVID-19.

With the drug now approved for use, GRA and Dr. Reddy’s will distribute Avigan® in Indonesia through private healthcare providers opting for a premium quality drug.

“Generic versions of Favipiravir are or will be available in Indonesia, India and other markets as it gets addditional regulatory approval and becomes accepted as a safe, effective treatment for COVID patients,” said Eric ten Kate, Head of Life Science at GRA. “GRA’s focus is getting branded Avigan®, the premium version of the drug, to providers and patients who want the original formulation, which has a higher potency, fewer impurities and five times the shelf life. Our goal is to provide the safest, most effective version of Favipiravir available anywhere.”

Mitch Wilson, CEO of GRA, said: “Approval by Indonesia means that Avigan®/Favipiravir is now being used to treat patients in the three most populous Asian countries – China, India and Indonesia. We expect further approvals in the near future and will be announcing multiple manufacturing locations globally to meet the growing demand.”

“The diligent and efficient work GRA and Dr. Reddy’s are conducting is the reason we chose them as our partners,” said Junji Okada, President, FUJIFILM Toyama Co., Ltd.

Avigan® was approved for manufacture and sale in Japan in 2014 as an influenza anti-viral drug. It has generally been used only when there is an outbreak of novel or re-emerging influenza virus infections in which other influenza anti-viral drugs are either not effective or insufficiently effective.

Working with government agencies, non-governmental organizations and local regulatory authorities, GRA is providing Avigan® to qualified patients with COVID-19 on a compassionate-use basis for emergency treatment outside of ongoing clinical studies.

The pandemic has disrupted supply chains around the world. It presents vast logistics challenges everywhere. But there are solutions. And at their heart are technology and people – and the tools, communications and data that link them.

The essential nature of logistics has been highlighted by the Coronavirus crisis, from getting personal protective equipment (PPE) to healthcare workers, to replenishing stocks in supermarkets.

The challenges are imposing. From much-reduced air and ocean cargo capacity and a rapid shift from in-store buying to e-commerce to the COVID-19 “bullwhip effect” on inventories and supplies, never have so many businesses and consumers had to adjust, improvise and innovate so rapidly.

Here are four key logistics challenges that spurred the search for new solutions.

1. Capacity

Capacity evaporated. In normal times, ocean freight is typically around 90% of global trade volume. But the pandemic initially curtailed the supply of manufactured goods out of Asia, then rippled across the world and sent demand for goods shipped by ocean freight plummeting. Ocean carriers responded by removing shipping capacity from the market: cancelling sailings and eliminating “strings” where vessels call on several ports before reaching a final destination. Air freight capacity also dropped, in large part because a significant portion of air cargo flies in the bellies of passenger flights, many of which were cancelled as passenger traffic dried up. Meanwhile, driver shortages and cross-border restrictions shrank road freight capacity in certain places and led to long backups and delays.

Ocean freight capacity is starting to bottom out and stabilize. In the meantime, a number of other answers have emerged, including:

• Shift of ocean cargo to air, despite higher shipping rates and a scramble for space. Makers of tech products – laptops and headsets – saw demand soar as millions around the world left the office and began working from home for extended periods;
• Use of air charters for urgent, high-value cargo that would otherwise go aboard freighter aircraft or in the belly of widebody passenger flights;
• Conversion of empty passenger aircraft to “passenger-freighters” that can carry cargo in specially packed passenger cabins, in addition to belly cargo;
• Charter sharing and freight consolidation among forwarders or shippers that might normally be competitors;
• Alternative modes such as rail from China to Europe, then long-haul trucking across borders;
• Alternative airports, ports, and trucking routes where there is extra capacity.

2. Fluctuating demand

COVID-19 has turbocharged the consumer shift to online buying. In Italy, e-commerce sales of consumer products rose by 81% in a single week; McKinsey forecasts that 55% of consumers in China will continue shopping online as the crisis eases – for example, buying cars without ever visiting a showroom. Businesses weathering the storm include those with omni-channel inventory strategies that have pivoted to BOPIS (buy online, pick up in store) models, and smaller firms such as restaurants that transformed their websites into points-of-sale and converted themselves into delivery-led operations.

The retail-to-go approach presents logistics hurdles. E-commerce demands rapid fulfillment and delivery that is also inexpensive for the consumer. Among the solutions is alternative inventory storage: more warehousing close to point-of-origin or destination, conversion of stores into storage as distribution and fulfillment hubs, or strategic use of ocean freight as “floating storage” through careful timing of orders and deliveries.

3. Geographic risk

The crisis also provides an opportunity to re-evaluate supply chain locations. At the start of the pandemic, when China shuttered production, some US fashion retailers said more than 70% of their stock was sourced from the country. Disruption to its industries have left electronics retailers facing delays of 10 weeks on shipments. The same is true for brands producing in other nations.

Will the crisis alter global production and sourcing patterns? Will it prompt companies producing or sourcing in Asia to diversify by spreading production, or to adopt near-shoring or reshoring strategies? There are signs some US manufacturers are looking at bringing production closer to home, mainly in Mexico.

For many, it will be hard to cut or loosen ties to China. Supply chains there are highly efficient, the labor force large and skilled, the market vast and growing. Chinese production is deeply integrated with inputs from and production in other Asian markets. China, for instance, is a major source of fabric for garment manufacturers in the region, making it hard to remove from the equation altogether. And a “China+1” strategy to spread supply chain risk is also potentially expensive.

Many companies with the flexibility to move have already done so, as the result of US-China trade friction that began in 2016, or because labor costs in China were rising. Pre-COVID-19, the Agility Emerging Markets Logistics Index 2020 found 70% of those with operations in China were planning to stay put, despite global trade tensions and other headwinds. This sentiment may endure after the pandemic, suggesting a logistics-led solution, smoothing supply and demand issues, is the best approach.

4. Inventory management

Consider the COVID-19 “bullwhip effect”  – the changes in consumer demand that ripple through the supply chain at ever greater magnitudes, creating long-term problems for production and supply. This can be seen in the one-off surges in demand for toilet paper – stockouts one week, then excess inventory buildup the next. From goods delayed to goods unwanted, the pandemic has created inventory chaos.

Some solutions exist in creative logistics:

• Improving visibility tools and using advanced data analytics for better modeling;
• Moving stock closer to key markets;
• Working out whether smaller volumes of inventory are needed in order to be more responsive to fast-paced trends;
• Demand planning and ordering in shortened, more frequent cycles.

One lesson of this crisis is that without people, technology is of little value. Companies that reacted quickly to the supply chain disruption caused by the pandemic typically did so because, as Biju Kewalram, Chief Digital Officer of Agility GIL, says, “Technology doesn’t make itself useful. People make technology useful.”

“We’ve found that the customers that have a high degree of digital supply chain already built in were able to flex a lot better and more quickly with us. But they also had agile organizations where internal collaboration and collaboration with customers and suppliers were already part of the culture, data and visibility were shared, and people were empowered to be nimble in how they responded.”

Global Response Aid and Dr. Reddy’s to sell premium original version of anti-viral drug

HYDERABAD, India – August 20, 2020 – Global Response Aid and Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories will begin selling the anti-viral drug Avigan® in India following a recent decision by government health authorities to approve the drug’s active ingredient, Favipiravir, for treatment of patients infected with COVID-19. This important ruling is the result of proven efficacy from the widespread use of the drug.

Avigan® was developed as an influenza anti-viral by FujiFilm, which has licensed GRA and Dr. Reddy’s to manufacture, distribute and sell the drug globally. Clinical trials of the drug have been conducted and are underway in the United States, Japan, China, the Middle East and other countries, where it is being used to reduce fevers and shorten recovery time in patients who receive Avigan® in the early stages of infection with COVID-19.

In India, GRA and Dr. Reddy’s will look to distribute Avigan® through private healthcare providers opting for a premium quality drug. The initial supply will contain the original Avigan®, made in Japan.

“Generic versions of Favipiravir are available on the market in India,” said Eric ten Kate, Head of Life Science GRA. “Our focus is getting branded Avigan®, the premium version of the drug, to providers and patients who prefer the original formulation, which has a higher potency, fewer impurities and five times the shelf life. Our goal is to provide the safest, most effective version of Favipiravir available anywhere.”

Mitch Wilson, CEO of GRA, said: “This is an important milestone in the regulatory approval process for Avigan®. We are expecting further approvals in the near future and will be announcing multiple manufacturing locations globally to meet the growing demand.”

“The diligent and efficient work GRA and Dr. Reddy’s are conducting is the reason we chose them as our partners,” said Junji Okada, President, FUJIFILM Toyama Co., Ltd.

In July, the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation of India’s Directorate General of Health Services approved Favipiravir for distribution, sale and use in treatment of COVID-19 patients.

Avigan® was approved for manufacture and sale in Japan in 2014 as an influenza anti-viral drug. It has generally been used only when there is an outbreak of novel or re-emerging influenza virus infections in which other influenza anti-viral drugs are either not effective or insufficiently effective.

Working with government agencies, non-governmental organizations and local regulatory authorities, GRA is providing Avigan® to qualified patients with COVID-19 on a compassionate-use basis for emergency treatment outside of ongoing clinical studies.

Numbers above are rounded

KUWAIT – August 15, 2020 – Agility, a leading global logistics provider, today reported first-half earnings of 8.47 fils per share on net profit of KD 16.2 million, a decrease of 61.3% over the same period in 2019. EBITDA declined by 20.1% to KD 75.8 million, and revenue declined 1.3% to KD 765.1 million.

Tarek Sultan, Agility Vice Chairman and CEO, said: “We entered 2020 with our business on sound footing, which is one reason that we were able to react quickly to the sweeping impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. We acted immediately to protect employees, customers, and communities, including providing donated logistics support for local governments and NGOs around the world. We also took steps to bring operating expenses and other costs in line with the new environment. If the crisis has demonstrated anything, it is the essential value of logistics and supply chain providers in times of severe disruption.”

Sultan said the economic fallout from the pandemic has had an uneven effect on Agility businesses. “Our contract logistics business and logistics parks have weathered this reasonably well because demand for storage space has been steady or increased, especially as customers have looked to add to safety stock or support pandemic-driven increases in e-commerce sales.  In many instances, we are experiencing accelerated adoption of disruptive and emerging technologies related to the COVID-19 pandemic or underlying CSR paradigms.  Other Agility businesses, such as aviation and airport operations have been directly impacted by the decline in air travel and traffic and are now pivoting towards the development of pioneering new technologies that will be essential to the re-enablement of global travel.”

Agility Global Integrated Logistics (GIL)

Global Integrated Logistics’ first-half EBITDA was KD 28.8 million, a 1.3% increase from the same period in 2019. This was driven by strong Contract Logistics, Project Logistics, and Air Freight results, as well as a sharp focus on containing costs.

GIL’s H1 net revenue was KD 135.8 million, in line with last year’s performance. Net revenue increased in Contract Logistics, Project Logistics, and Air Freight, but fell in Ocean Freight and Fairs & Events. GIL gross revenue was KD 570.6 million, a 2.5% increase from same period in 2019.

Volumes were down in both Air Freight and Ocean Freight in the first half of this year, by 23.6% in Air Freight (tonnage) and 14.8% in Ocean Freight (TEUs), due to COVID-19 impact on demand due to lockdowns, production stoppages, and economic contraction across industries and geographies. However, H1 saw higher yields in Air Freight due to capacity shortages and a spike in demand for urgent shipments of PPE and other medical equipment. First-half Air Freight net revenue increased 17% vs. the same period a year earlier, while Ocean Freight net revenue decreased 16% vs. same period last year.

Contract Logistics achieved healthy growth (7% net revenue growth), mainly in the MEA Region (Kuwait, Saudi Arabia) as the result of the addition of new facilities and increased operating efficiencies. Project Logistics showed strong performance across all regions with 25% net revenue increase, driven by new capital projects and positive volume development from existing customers. Fairs & Events net revenue fell 46% with the cancellation and postponement of key events.

Starting in Q1, GIL introduced a range of both temporary and permanent cost reduction measures in response to the pandemic. The measures are intended to ensure continued strength of profitability performance during a period of falling and volatile global trade activity. GIL continues to focus on operational productivity as well as customer solutions to respond to the changing market environment.

Agility’s Infrastructure Companies

Agility’s Infrastructure group EBITDA declined 18% to KD 56 million for the first half of 2020. This decrease was driven mainly by UPAC, NAS and GCS entities, which experienced significant declines as a result of the pandemic. In contrast, Agility Logistics Parks (ALP) and Tristar proved to be resilient during the first half of the year. Infrastructure group net revenue fell 8.4% and gross revenue declined 10.2%.

ALP revenue grew 4.5% in the first half amid increased demand for warehousing space, mainly from suppliers of medical equipment and food. ALP also witnessed strong demand from e-commerce players as it is strategically placed to service the requirements of fulfilment providers. ALP accelerated delivery of a few projects to meet customer demand. Developments in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Africa are proceeding as planned, despite some interruptions due to lockdowns.

Tristar, a fully integrated liquid logistics company, posted a 10% revenue decline in the first 6 months.  Despite that, Tristar’s contractual business model provided resiliency, allowing profitability to grow by double digits during the same period. The revenue decline in the first half of the year was primarily due to the sharp drop in fuel prices and volume slowdown from COVID-19 pandemic impacting Fuel and Road Transport and Warehousing (RTW) segments. The Maritime segment showed healthy growth due to the deployment of new vessels and strong market demand.  With the Coronavirus outbreak, Tristar took measures to ensure no business interruption for its customers. Although uncertainty remains in market, we believe Tristar is positioned us for a successful second half of 2020. Tristar continues to execute and to look for opportunities to unlock additional value for its shareholders.

National Aviation Services (NAS) reported a revenue decline of 29%, despite performing well in January and February.  In March, NAS revenue came under pressure as airlines and airports where it operates curtailed flights and related services, or in some cases, halted operations entirely. Despite the limited operations at many airports, NAS continued to serve evacuation flights, private jets, and cargo freighters. With airport and carrier activity resuming in some locations, NAS is seeing increased demand for its services. NAS’s focus for the remainder of 2020 will be on cash flow, reduction of costs in line with the two-year outlook for aviation, pursuit of new growth opportunities, and adjustment of policies and procedures to operate in a post-COVID world.

The pandemic impacted United Projects for Aviation Services Company (UPAC), which saw revenue fall 51.8% in the first half due to the cessation of operations at the Kuwait International Airport. In response, UPAC activated its business contingency plan and took steps to reduce the negative impact on its business.

At GCS, Agility’s customs modernization company, revenue fell 21%, due to precautionary measures taken by the Kuwait Government in response to COVID-19. Some border areas were closed temporarily starting March, curtailing trade and causing decreases in GCS revenue.

Sultan said: “In response to the COVID 19 crisis, all entities across the board activated their BCPs and cost alignment measures.  And even during these difficult times, each business has contributed to several CSR activities including delivering food to families in Kuwait and supporting the Kuwait Red Crescent Society’s initiatives. Agility also provided free warehousing and local transportation services as part of its COVID-19 response. In Mozambique, we moved PPE for seven hospitals and arranged for storage at the newly built Agility Logistics Park in Maputo.”

Recap of Agility H1 2020 Financial Performance

• Agility’s net profit decreased 61.3% to KD 16.2 million. EPS was 8.47 fils vs. 21.89 fils a year earlier.
• Agility’s EBITDA decreased 20.1% to KD 75.8 million.
• Agility’s revenue declined 1.3%, to KD 765 million and net revenue decreased 3.7%.
• GIL revenue increased 2.5% to KD 570.6 million.
• Infrastructure’s revenue declined 10.2% to KD 202.8 million.
• Agility enjoys a healthy balance sheet with KD 2.2 billion in assets. Net debt was KD 143.1 million as of June 30, 2020. Reported operating cash flow was KD 93.6 million for the first half of 2020, an increase of 128.2%.

Closing

“The full impact of COVID-19 is not yet clear – there are many possible scenarios and many unknowns – but we are taking steps to weather the storm and emerge stronger. We are adjusting to the reality on the ground within each respective business, and bringing the cost structure in line with the new levels of business we are seeing. We have a strong focus on cash, with a view to having ample liquidity to cover us for the foreseeable future,” Sultan said.

“Ultimately, we feel that our long-term vision of infrastructure growth in emerging markets, our growing focus on disruptive technologies and digital enablement for logistics, and expansion into new market segments like e-commerce, is more important than ever. We would like to thank our employees, customers and shareholders for their support during this difficult period. We are confident that together, we can build back stronger and better,” Sultan said.

Agility facility to be leading retailer’s central warehouse and distribution center

ABIDJAN, Cote D’Ivoire – August 12, 2020 – Agility, a leading global logistics and warehousing provider, has leased warehouse space in the Agility Logistics Park (ALP) in Abidjan to CDCI, Cote D’Ivoire’s top retailer, for a new nationwide warehousing and distribution center.
CDCI, which operates supermarkets in Cote D’Ivoire, will use the ALP facility as a central distribution center to hold stock and distribute a wide range of food and non-food consumer products to support its retail operations across Cote D’Ivoire.CDCI chose to lease at the Agility Logistics Park because of it offers secure, international-standard warehousing and facilities and services available to support CDCI’s expanding business across the country.

The Agility Logistics Park location, on the main highway between Abidjan and Yamoussoukro at PK24, was also a key consideration for CDCI. The location provides the ideal geographic center for supporting CDCI’s Abidjan stores as well as its network of stores across the country.

Hicham Kitane, CDCI Supply Chain Head, said: “A resilient, secure and efficient distribution network is fundamental to our business model. By choosing the Agility Logistics Park, CDCI has addressed one of the biggest constraints to companies doing business in West Africa – the lack of high standard logistic infrastructure. This project is one of the key milestones in our new supply chain strategy, which will support our business steady growth.”

Kitane said CDCI was also attracted to the ALP facility because it meets international environmental standards and features eco-friendly construction materials. Agility used energy- efficient roof and side insulated panels; wind-driven roof fans; skylights for natural lighting; LED and energy-saving bulbs; and solar-powered streetlights. The ALP recycles paper, plastic, metal, and carton waste. It provides eco-friendly waste management services and carbon footprint reporting.

The Agility Logistics Park in Abidjan is part of a network of international-standard logistics parks that Agility is funding and developing across key markets in Africa to support the development of domestic and regional trade.

Geoffrey White, CEO Agility Africa, said, “We believe that the provision of international-standard warehouses in Africa for storage, distribution and light manufacturing is one of the fundamental building blocks necessary for economic growth. The Agility Logistics Parks enable companies, whether multinationals such as CDCI, or small and medium enterprises, to access quality infrastructure easily, quickly and cost effectively.”

New Bee3kw.com portal helps sellers build online stores, manage payments and logistics

KUWAIT – July 29, 2020 – The National Fund for Small and Medium Enterprise Development and Agility, a leading global logistics provider, and the today announced the launch of the https://bee3kw.com/, a portal that offers small businesses quick access to resources they need to build an electronic store and grow their digital sales.

Bee3kw.com grew out of an initiative by the Kuwait National Fund and Agility to help small businesses move from offline to online sales quickly.

Manaf Almenaifi, Director General of the National Fund for Small and Medium Enterprise Development, said the National Fund is keen to provide new services of the highest standards for entrepreneurs to benefit from while also taking into consideration the developments in the local and global markets.

He said the National Fund aims to provide digital services that proved to be strong performers before the current crisis. He urged entrepreneurs to take advantage of the Bee3kw.com initiative so they could begin their e-commerce journeys with the tools they need to succeed.

Almenaifi said this initiative is the beginning of the National Fund’s collaboration with the private sector in e-commerce and welcomed more cooperation with service providers from local companies who wish to provide special offers and services to Kuwaiti entrepreneurs, who will be major contributors to national economic growth in the future.

Merchants joining Bee3kw.com will get six-month free trials with leading Middle East e-commerce enablers ExpandCart and Zid. ExpandCart and Zid, both Agility partners, allow merchants and social sellers with no technical expertise to establish online stores in as little as a couple of hours and choose their own payment gateway, shipping, fulfilment and delivery solutions. In addition, online payment partners to this initiative, TAP and Myfatoorah, will help business owners with payment solutions that can support their business as they set up their new digital store. Through Shipa Delivery, merchants will get on-demand same-day, next-day or cross-border delivery in Kuwait and across the Arabian Gulf.

Henadi Al-Saleh, Agility Chairperson and leader of Agility’s logistics venture strategy, said: “Because of the current crisis, online selling is key to both growth and survival for many small businesses. Consumers have turned to e-commerce and this shift in buying patterns could be permanent. The faster merchants adapt by building attractive, efficient, low-cost, easy-to-use digital stores, the more likely they are to thrive in the current environment and in the future.”

Through Bee3kw.com, small and medium businesses will benefit from more than 10 training sessions on various topics that will help them move online. The topics will cover switching to e-commerce, online payment solutions, branding, digital marketing, and more. The sessions will be conducted online and led by experts from Bee3kw.com partner companies.

Fahad Alshatti, SVP Agility Corporate Venture team, added: “Supporting small and medium-sized businesses is crucial during these times. Efforts by Agility and the National Fund towards this segment, especially during COVID-19, demonstrate our joint commitment to nurturing local talents and helping them grow despite challenges they may be facing. We are providing all the things they require to help them on their online journey. At Agility Ventures, our goal is to develop and grow the e-commerce ecosystem to benefit both businesses and consumers in our market.”

Large Phase 3 Trials to be Announced by GRA and Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories

DUBAI – July 15, 2020 – Healthcare solutions provider Global Response Aid (GRA) said the anti-viral drug Avigan® produced encouraging results in a recent multi-center clinical study led by Japan’s Fujita Health University, showing a discernible trend in reducing fevers and viral loads in early-stage COVID-19 patients.

Fujita Health University’s principle investigator for the study described in a published statement the challenging scenario in which eligible patient recruitment was hindered by reductions in new patient presentations, leading to a limited sample of 89 patients. This ultimately prevented the study from achieving statistical significance, despite the relatively positive trends observed.

The study included two arms. Patients in the first arm received Avigan® early in the progress of their illness; and patients in the second arm, received the drug later than those in the first arm. More than 94% of the patients in the group receiving early treatment with Avigan® had a significant and rapid reduction in viral loads (dropping them below 50%) and alleviation of fevers within 2.1 days on average.

GRA believes these results highlight the drug’s potential to prevent COVID-19 patients from progressing to more severe or critical clinical stages of the disease, along with the possibility of treating patients with mild or moderate cases of COVID-19 in outpatient settings. Additional studies designed to validate these potential uses are currently underway and will represent a breakthrough in the fight against COVID-19 if they yield similar positive results.

“The findings from this university-led study are highly encouraging,” said Mitch Wilson, CEO of GRA. “We will soon be announcing a large, company-sponsored, Phase-3 double-blind randomized clinical trial with up to 1,000 patients.”

Avigan®, which contains the active ingredient Favipiravir, is the subject of clinical studies and trials in COVID-19 patients in several countries. It was used to treat COVID-19 patients in studies in China’s Hubei province, led by the China-Japan Friendship Hospital. Fujifilm is conducting a multi-site Phase 2 trial in the United States involving initially hospitalized patients. Avigan® also is the subject of an investigator-initiated Phase 2 trial in subjects with mild or asymptomatic COVID-19 being conducted by the Stanford University School of Medicine. The drug is also being considered for large-scale testing in a number of countries and we expect the announcement of a second Phase-3 double-blind randomized clinical trial with up to 1,500 patients.

GRA, Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories, and FUJIFILM Toyama Chemical recently entered a global licensing agreement covering the production, marketing and distribution of Avigan®. FUJIFILM Toyama Chemical is a FUJIFILM subsidiary that discovered the active ingredient in Avigan® in the late 1990s for development as an anti-influenza drug.

GRA is a Dubai-based company established by global logistics leader Agility (KSE: AGLTY) to procure and develop certified diagnostic, testing and protective products and services used in the detection, treatment and prevention of COVID-19 and other public health threats.

“GRA’s focus is on rapidly determining the safety and effectiveness of Avigan® as a potential treatment for COVID-19,” GRA’s Wilson said. “These studies give us a more expansive breadth of data globally and allow us to evaluate the drug in a short amount of time. The speed with which Avigan® has moved into clinical development for coronavirus reflects the pressing need for treatment options and the shared commitment of industry, governments, global health organizations and healthcare providers to respond to this public health threat with the greatest urgency.”

Avigan® Tablet was approved for manufacture and sale in Japan in 2014 as an influenza anti-viral drug. The drug is to be considered for use only when there is an outbreak of novel or re-emerging influenza virus infections in which other influenza anti-viral drugs are either not effective or insufficiently effective, and the Japanese government decides to use the drug as a countermeasure against such influenza viruses.