RICHMOND, Va.– Phlow, a U.S.-based, essential medicines impact company, today announced its support of the first-ever National Essential Medicine Shortage Awareness Day. This observance was created to educate the public about the ongoing crisis of essential medicine shortages in the United States.
Today has been identified as a national observance to bring awareness to Americans of the need for reliable access to critical essential medicines. While medicine shortages have been a persistent challenge for the U.S. healthcare system for more than a decade, the COVID-19 pandemic has amplified vulnerabilities in the overall U.S. hospital supply chain.
“Americans expect that the medicines they need will be available when they go to a hospital or visit a doctor,” said Eric Edwards, M.D., Ph.D., President, co-founder, and CEO of Phlow. “They can’t imagine that a hospital might tell them that the most safe and effective medications for their condition simply aren’t available. Stopping essential medicine shortages in America is a priority for Phlow. We are thrilled to be embracing the first-ever National Essential Medicine Shortage Awareness Day that will help educate the public on this critical topic. No American should ever be without the critical essential medicines necessary to sustain life and conquer disease.”
Revamping the supply chain and stockpiling essential medicines and their key ingredients could have substantial economic and health benefits that go beyond rare crises like the pandemic. It is important that public-private partnerships be established to accelerate efforts to domestically manufacture essential medicines. Given the fragility of the global supply chain, America must reimagine a domestic, end-to-end solution for both active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and vital finished essential medicine products. The goal of this observance day is to raise awareness of this national health crisis, and encourage collaboration and innovation among healthcare professionals, patient advocates, pharmaceutical manufacturers, and lawmakers to create a more secure and sustainable essential medicine supply chain for all Americans.
The Children’s Hospital Coalition: Powered by PhlowTM (CHC), including 13 of the nation’s leading children’s hospitals, is working tirelessly to end essential medicine shortages by ensuring a reliable supply of high-quality, affordable essential medicines to treat children. The care of America’s children is often unnecessarily impacted by essential medicine shortages, which sometimes lead to compromised patient care, clinician frustration, and increased hospital pharmacy costs and inefficiencies.
“Shortages of essential medicines are an all too common occurrence in health care, especially pediatrics, and our frontline workers are doing heroic work every day to make sure that no family has to worry about whether the medicine their child needs will be available,” said Kurt Newman, president and CEO of Children’s National Hospital in Washington, D.C. “Children’s National is proud to be a part of the CHC which is a groundbreaking coalition working hard to solve the complex problem of essential medicine shortages.” (IANS)
