APhA: Transparency, Safety and Availability Must Be Core Principles for Strengthening America's Drug Supply Chain

WASHINGTON, Aug. 10, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The reliability, quality and safety of our nation's drug supply chain are essential to the nation's security and health and well-being of the American public. Therefore, we welcome comprehensive federal efforts to improve the state of our drug supply chain, particularly at a time when our health care system is under extraordinary stress.

The President's Executive Order last week, "Ensuring Essential Medicines, Medical Countermeasures and Critical Inputs Are Made in the United States," is an important step forward, recognizing that available and safe medications and medical devices are essential to the health and well-being of our nation.

The implementation of this order must follow the following principles:

• Transparency: The list of essential medicines, medical countermeasures and critical inputs must be developed in partnerships with the health care community – including pharmacists, who are the nation's foremost medication experts and receive the most training in medications of any health care profession.
• Quality and safety: The urgent need to ensure a reliable drug supply chain must concede nothing to ensuring that our supply is safe and of high-quality. This is critical to preserving the trust and confidence that Americans have in the medications that they use.
• Availability: The recent history of multiple shortages of even common medications and ingredients remind us that the drug supply chain is already unacceptably fragile. Any effort to broaden the manufacturing base for these medications must make every effort to avoid further disruptions in the availability of the medications that the American people need every day.

In March 2020, the APhA House of Delegates overwhelmingly approved new policy declaring, "The quality and safety of pharmaceutical and other products, and the global pharmaceutical and medical product supply chain, are essential the United States national security and public health." The complete text of the policy, "Protecting Pharmaceuticals as a Strategic Asset," is available here.

About the American Pharmacists Association
The American Pharmacists Association is the largest association representing all of pharmacy, bringing together practicing pharmacists, pharmaceutical scientists, student pharmacists, pharmacy technicians and others to support pharmacists' ability to deliver optimal patient care. For more information, please visit www.pharmacist.com.

SOURCE American Pharmacists Association