America’s Pharmaceutical Research
Companies Respond to Emergencies

After disastrous storms like Hurricanes Ike and Gustav come ashore, the job of picking up the pieces and rebuilding communities is never easy. But an important part of any recovery effort is making sure that needed medicines and supplies can reach disaster victims.
 
That’s the reason PhRMA is a major sponsor of Rx Response: A unique, private-sector partnership that brings together key players in the medical supply system to assist emergency managers’ responding to a natural disasters or pandemic. The Rx Response network provides emergency managers with information about the status of the pharmaceutical supply system and helps them to efficiently communicate

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their needs for medicines to the key players in the supply system.
 
This storm season was Rx Response ' s first outing as a resource available to storm managers. Throughout the season, Rx Response closely monitored storms and worked to let emergency managers know that Rx Response was available to help. One critical part of Rx Response was to aid emergency managers in communicating with key players in the pharmaceutical supply system about their needs for medicines as well with information about the status of the pharmaceutical supply system. Fortunately, Rx Response was  able to provide direct help to storm managers in the aftermath of Hurricane Ike, letting them know whether pharmacies in affected areas were open as well as helping to facilitate both requests for help obtaining medicines and the delivery of medicines into storm-ravaged areas.
 
More importantly, Rx Response fulfills a commitment that PhRMA made after Hurricane Katrina to take action to ensure that the pharmaceutical supply system can quickly recover to help meet patient’s needs in the aftermath of a serious storm, pandemic, terrorist or other natural disaster. Along with partners like the Red Cross, the American Hospital Association, the National Association of Chain Drugstores and other, Rx Response is proving that the private sector is ready to be there to help in an emergency.
 
Every storm and every time Rx Response was activated taught us a lot about how we can continually improve our ability to protect and restore the pharmaceutical supply system in an emergency. Rx Response represents an important new tool that emergency managers can count on in the aftermath of a natural disaster or in a pandemic.  It also represents the very best of the more than 500,000 dedicated men and women who work for America’s pharmaceutical research companies.

Read a detailed report on Rx Response's activity during Hurricanes Gustav and Ike

Read the Press Release