HDA Blog

The global supply chain continues to face scrutiny, with port backups and product shortages grabbing headlines. However, as Chuck Forsaith, Vice President and Founder of HDA’s Pharmaceutical Cargo Security Coalition (PCSC), shared in a recent episode of the Pharmacy Crossroads podcast, there is another supply chain risk impacting trading partners throughout the healthcare distribution industry — which HDA’s PCSC has been diligently tracking and working to combat. Pharmacy Crossroads, hosted by pharmacy industry veteran Bruce Kneeland, provides an insider voice for the community pharmacy industry and is a member of the Pharmacy Podcast Network.

Texas-based Authentix, which provides authentication services to a range of sectors, launched in 2003 with a few dozen employees and a modest, but loyal customer base. These devoted customers, many of whom have worked with the company for nearly 20 years, are the foundation upon which this HDA-member service provider has grown into a global company with more than 400 staff and operations on five continents.

HDA recognizes the role healthcare distributors can play in minimizing the healthcare sector’s carbon footprint. Many members are already committing to sustainability initiatives — from adopting eco-friendly packaging to setting carbon neutrality goals.

For HDA member BluPax Pharma, an independently owned and operated distributor of generic pharmaceuticals, relationships are at the core of everything they do.

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.

As March comes to a close, HDA is rounding out Women’s History Month celebrations by sharing perspectives from some of the incredible women making a difference within the distribution sector and the larger healthcare ecosystem. Interviews were conducted in conjunction with the recent Distribution Management Conference and other forums in support of HDA’s Faces of the Supply Chain video series, a new initiative of the Health Delivered campaign.

Healthcare distributors, as logistics experts of the supply chain, are constantly innovating to increase efficiencies, optimize operations and generate solutions for an ever-evolving ecosystem — while continuously ensuring the safe, efficient and reliable delivery of 10 million medicines and healthcare products every day.

Throughout the past year, HDA distributor members worked tirelessly to ensure the continued delivery of everyday, lifesaving medicines and support COVID-19 response efforts. Equipped with extensive logistics expertise, distributors used communication, collaboration and coordination with trading partners and at all levels of the government to aid and help protect the health of Americans across the country.

The health of the pharmaceutical supply chain depends on the expertise and ingenuity of the committed professionals working to help get lifesaving medicines and supplies to points of care as efficiently as possible.

With the deadline to implement the 2013 Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA) now less than two years away, HDA has released a new video that highlights the great progress that has been made by industry to implement DSCSA and some of the biggest challenges that still remain.