WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Healthcare Ready, a national nonprofit organization working with public/private partners to strengthen the resiliency of communities before, during, and after disasters, today announced its 2021 “Heroes of the Supply Chain” honorees. Led by BD, the Healthcare Distribution Alliance (HDA), AdvaMed, Regeneron, the pharmaceutical industry, and frontline workers, the awardees were selected for driving creative solutions to a myriad of obstacles presented by COVID-19, hurricanes, and wildfires over the past year.
“Healthcare Ready is pleased to honor key sectors of the supply chain as ‘Heroes of the Supply Chain’ for their herculean efforts to quickly adapt, pivot, and innovate to fulfill the needs of the healthcare system and patients they serve during an incredibly challenging year,” said Courtney Romolt, Programs Manager of Healthcare Ready. “Throughout 2021, manufacturers surged capacity to support unprecedented global demand for vaccines and treatments, distributors worked around the clock to ensure seamless delivery of medications, and brave frontline workers relentlessly provided care for patients in need. These heroes deserve our recognition, dedication, and gratitude for going above and beyond to safeguard the health of the nation during this unprecedented time.”
A description of Healthcare Ready’s 2021 “Heroes of the Supply Chain” and links to individual blog posts recognizing their specific achievements are listed below:
BD (Becton, Dickinson and Company)
As a leading global medical technology company and the world’s largest manufacturer of injection devices, BD (Becton, Dickinson and Company) swiftly partnered with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to invest in a $70 million expansion of its Nebraska manufacturing facility soon after COVID-19 hit our shores. By ramping up their manufacturing capabilities, BD is making it possible to accelerate the path to normalcy by supplying billions of needles and syringes to enable COVID-19 vaccination efforts around the world.
Since 2020, healthcare distributors, represented by the Healthcare Distribution Alliance (HDA), have maintained incredible flexibility as they collectively responded to internal and external pressures while safeguarding the safe, efficient, and effective distribution of lifesaving medicines and healthcare products throughout the nation. Importantly, various segments of the industry are to be commended for seamlessly serving their critical functions while they also began focusing on increasing diversity, equity, and inclusion in their respective roles.
It is difficult to envision a more robust and comprehensive response to the challenges presented by the coronavirus pandemic than the actions taken by Regeneron to support access to COVID-19 therapeutics. It’s why Healthcare Ready has named Regeneron, a leading biotechnology company, as one of our 2021 “Heroes of the Supply Chain.” As COVID-19 swept through the nation, a mounting challenge the company faced was to raise awareness and deepen education of treatment options in communities with large populations of certain patients who, after being exposed to the coronavirus, were at high risk for progression to severe COVID-19. Regeneron activated large teams to support engagement with these at-risk communities and worked alongside national affinity and advocacy organizations to ensure their constituents were educated on the enhanced risks from COVID-19 and were aware of the available treatment options.
Healthcare Ready applauds the medical device industry’s efforts for investing in and developing strategies to bolster supply chain resilience to help companies mitigate current and long-term risks during COVID-19 and natural disasters. Despite global shortages of semiconductor chips, the industry is continuing to establish creative partnerships to ensure that critical medical supplies we rely on, including needles and syringes, are widely available.
To make the seemingly impossible a reality, the pharmaceutical industry leveraged existing partnerships with the federal government as they relentlessly tackled every challenge and spent thousands of hours racing to create safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines. Impressing and shocking nearly everyone, at the end of 2021, the first shots of COVID-19 were in arms, a record accomplishment by any estimation. This incredible feat was made possible through scores of public/private partnerships among medical device and pharmaceutical companies in partnership with the federal government, potentially saving millions of lives.
Healthcare Ready is proud to honor the various ways pharmacies, pharmacists, community health centers, nurses, physicians, medical technicians, and every other healthcare worker has gone above and beyond to make sure patients have the care they need throughout the entire pandemic. We also salute the janitorial and cafeteria staff, the IT team and more who are often overlooked because they operate behind the scenes, yet they are a critical component to facility operations.
Through its “Heroes of the Supply Chain” initiative, on an annual basis, Healthcare Ready recognizes sectors of the healthcare supply chain who have gone above and beyond to ensure patients and providers have the supplies, medications, sanitization products, and personal protective equipment during emergencies.
About Healthcare Ready
Healthcare Ready is a nonprofit organization established in 2007 to help strengthen the US healthcare system and assist communities in planning for, responding to, and recovering from disasters and pandemics. It serves as a linkage point between industry, and local, state, and federal governments to help build resilient communities and safeguard patients before, during, and after public health emergencies. For more information, visit www.healthcareready.org or follow us on Twitter @HC_Ready.
