The World Health Organization has estimated that more than 13 million deaths around the globe are due to avoidable environmental causes stemming from climate change. Accordingly, this year’s World Health Day (April 7) theme is “Our Planet, Our Health,” which focuses on the political, social and commercial decisions that affect the environment as a factor in human health. The public and private sectors each can do their part on this front — and HDA believes that healthcare distributors have an important role to play in the health of the planet when it comes to delivering medications sustainably.

Maintaining the integrity of the pharmaceutical supply chain in this unprecedented time would not be possible without the incredible efforts of distribution industry employees, who are working around-the-clock to move critical medicines and healthcare supplies.

While the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic continues to unfold, distributors are taking proactive steps and working closely with the broader healthcare community to respond to the crisis and prevent disruptions to the pharmaceutical supply chain. As the logistics experts of healthcare, our commitment is to ensure that providers, pharmacies and the patients they serve have access to the vital medicines and supplies they need during these challenging times.

It is no secret that the U.S. healthcare system is complex. Connecting hundreds of thousands of healthcare providers with the medicines and healthcare products that patients rely on every day — both safely and efficiently — requires coordination between a diverse set of stakeholders. 

Patients often have many questions when they are prescribed a medication by their healthcare provider for the first time. What they typically do not need to worry about, however, is how their prescription medicine got to the pharmacy, whether anything happened to it along its journey, if it was handled with care or if it was potentially compromised by illegitimate products that may have entered the pharmaceutical supply chain.