Supply Chain Issues Seen in Covid-19 Fight
A Society of Corporate Compliance and Ethics (SCCE) online white paper points to the lack of drug and medical device supply chain resiliency as a major problem in worldwide efforts to combat the novel coronavirus. “If the nations of the world all had access to accurate and swift testing, ventilators, and hospital beds, generic drugs to help ease symptoms, and a variety of other materials, such as syringes, facemasks, and gloves, the effect of the virus would be significantly less than it is right now — not just for humans, but for the world economy as well,” the paper says.
The SCCE says that medical professionals, manufacturers of medical devices, and pharmaceutical companies “have been raising the alarm over the lack of supply chain resiliency in the medical field for years.”
It notes that in 10/2019 testimony, CDER director Janet Woodcock said that medical supply chains were dispersed, inflexible, and vulnerable to shocks and surges. She said the agency should locate and research all facilities producing these types of drugs: (1) all approved drugs on the U.S. market, including branded, generic, OTC, and compounded; (2) drugs on the World Health Organization essential medicines list that are marketed in the U.S.; and (3) drugs on medical countermeasure lists, including drugs to be used to counter biological, chemical, nuclear, or radiation threats and influenza.
“There are many more examples of U.S.-based and international organizations ringing alarm bells that went unheeded,” SCCE says. “Medical supply chains remain dispersed across the globe, concentrated in nodes of production and lacking in stockpiles and inventory. Medical professionals across the planet do not have the equipment they need to combat the coronavirus, and people are dying.”
The paper says that once the world is finished dealing with the coronavirus, the work to introduce resilience into the medical supply chain will still need to be done. It discusses recommendations made recently by FDA commissioner Stephen Hahn and legislation to give FDA regulatory powers to enforce an early warning system for medical devices similar to that now existing for drugs.
“Companies with the medical device and drugs sectors can act now to emerge from this crisis in a better position,” SCCE concludes. “Supply chain mapping, coordination, and collaboration with federal agencies and diversification of suppliers are three things that would help build supply chain resilience.”