Hurricane Season is Almost Here. Are You Ready?

Lilly, Healthcare Ready and Direct Relief Helping People Prepare for Disasters, Ensure Medicines are Available

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May 31, 2019, 07:00 ET

INDIANAPOLIS, May 31, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- The 2019 Atlantic hurricane season begins June 1. With natural disasters and extreme weather on the rise, it's critical to be prepared and ready to respond. That's why Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE: LLY) and two leading disaster relief organizations – Healthcare Ready and Direct Relief – are working to help people prepare for disasters and ensure medicines are available when they strike.

"During times of disaster, people need access to the essentials – shelter, food, water and, most certainly, health information and critical medicines," said David A. Ricks, Lilly's chairman and chief executive officer. "Our work with Healthcare Ready and Direct Relief expand our ongoing efforts to help people in times of disaster. It's one more way that we're working to help ensure people can access Lilly insulin and other medicines when they need them."

A new poll by Healthcare Ready points to the need for people to be better prepared in advance of disasters and able to access information when they strike. Approximately 60 percent of respondents indicate they would not be able to list all of their medical information in the event of a crisis, and 37 percent report they would experience serious health effects without access to their medications and medical devices for a week or less¹.

Lilly is supporting Healthcare Ready and its efforts to help people get access to the information and medicines they need in times of disaster. Lilly has committed $225,000 to expand Healthcare Ready's Rx Open, an online, interactive map of open pharmacies in times of disaster, and Rx on the Run, which helps people document and share prescriptions and provider information in advance of or during a disaster.

In addition, the funding will help Healthcare Ready create a web-based repository of patient education and preparedness resources that will allow people to search for targeted information based on their own situation, such as medical condition, type of disaster and geography (e.g., diabetes, hurricane, New Orleans).

In advance of this coming hurricane season, people with diabetes are encouraged to download and fill out American College of Endocrinology's My Diabetes Emergency Plan. It's a convenient checklist available in English and Spanish that contains all of the essential items and information people with diabetes need in the event of an emergency.

Since 2009, Lilly has worked with Direct Relief to supply insulin and other medicines as part of its Hurricane Prep Packs, which are distributed in advance to health centers in hurricane zones throughout the U.S., Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Each mobile, waterproof pack contains medical items to treat 100 people for three to five days in the immediate aftermath of a storm. Lilly is increasing its insulin donation to 4,400 vials and pens to provide more insulin per pack and to support Direct Relief's expansion from 62 packs in 2018 to 75 packs for this upcoming season.

Lilly is now supplying more than 19,000 vials and pens of insulin to Direct Relief's Disaster Response Inventory initiative, which creates a standing supply of targeted items that are urgently needed following natural disasters, including wildfires, tornados, typhoons, earthquakes, floods and hurricanes. The inventory is housed at Direct Relief's newly constructed warehouse in Santa Barbara, California, which allows for cold chain storage of insulin and other medicines.

About Eli Lilly and Company
Lilly is a global healthcare leader that unites caring with discovery to create medicines that make life better for people around the world. We were founded more than a century ago by a man committed to creating high-quality medicines that meet real needs, and today we remain true to that mission in all our work. Across the globe, Lilly employees work to discover and bring life-changing medicines to those who need them, improve the understanding and management of disease, and give back to communities through philanthropy and volunteerism. To learn more about Lilly, please visit us at www.lilly.com and http://newsroom.lilly.com/social-channels. CR-LLY

About Direct Relief
Direct Relief is a humanitarian aid organization, active in all 50 states and more than 80 countries, with a mission to improve the health and lives of people affected by poverty or emergencies – without regard to politics, religion, or ability to pay.

About Healthcare Ready
Healthcare Ready helps to strengthen healthcare through public private collaboration and addressing pressing issues before, during, and after disasters and disease outbreaks. As the convener of industry and government, Healthcare Ready safeguards patient health by providing solutions to critical problems and identifying best practices for healthcare preparedness and response.

¹ 2019 Healthcare Ready Annual Preparedness Poll. https://www.healthcareready.org/programs/community-resilience Accessed May 28, 2019.