Updates From The Stockpile: April 2017

The stockpile supports state, local, tribal, and territorial public health emergency responders and strives to ensure needed resources are available and ready to deliver to the right place at the right time. Learn More.

Message from the Stockpile Director

Welcome to the inaugural issue of the Strategic National Stockpile e-newsletter! We are excited to launch this platform to share regular updates on the work we are doing to build our medical supply chain partnerships and to improve the ways both the public and private sector respond to public health emergencies that require medical countermeasures.

With approximately 200 federal employees and 68 contracted staff, the Strategic National Stockpile is organized to support a variety of public health threats.  I have had the privilege of leading this division through a number of emergency responses, including pandemic influenza, emerging infectious diseases, and natural disasters like hurricanes and flooding. We also routinely respond to small-scale emergencies related to individual cases of anthrax, botulism, and adverse events arising from smallpox vaccinations. Because of our supply chain partnerships and procurement abilities, the stockpile is often called upon to respond even when we do not hold the actual countermeasures needed.

Our staff maintains a wealth of knowledge of medical countermeasure operations and logistics, which may help you in your planning efforts. In an effort to stay connected with you, we plan to distribute this newsletter every other month to provide regular updates from the stockpile.  Be sure to tell your colleagues to subscribe.

Greg Burel, Director

Division of Strategic National Stockpile

#StrategicNationalStockpile maintains meds, supplies & the capacity to deliver anywhere in the US. Learn more.

Stockpile Webinar

Open to all public health professionals and the general public

Want a look inside CDC’s secret warehouses prepped for health catastrophes? Join CDC’s Division of Strategic National Stockpile for a 1-hour webinar from 1:30 – 2:30 p.m. EDT on Wednesday, May 3.

The webinar covers the purpose and mission of the stockpile, the factors and various federal workgroups and agencies that determine which items to include in the stockpile, and the three major preparedness and response capabilities of the stockpile.

To register, visit http://train.org and search for webinar ID#1069826 or name—Introduction to CDC’s Strategic National Stockpile. After registering, participants will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

Do You Know the History of the Stockpile?

The National Pharmaceutical Stockpile was created in 1999 to ensure the nation’s readiness against potential agents of bioterrorism. Learn more about the history , view a timeline of stockpile responses and learn how each public health threat was supported.

CHEMPACK Update

On April 11, 2017, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) to permit the emergency use of the 2 mg atropine auto-injector manufactured by Rafa Laboratories, Ltd. Learn more.

Stockpile Collaboration with HIDA

On April 5, the stockpile hosted its second tabletop discussion with 17 industry leaders as part of an ongoing collaboration effort between the division and the Health Industry Distributors Association (HIDA).

Collaboration and market transparency are critical factors in a medical countermeasure response, and this group came together to explore ways that private industry and government can work together to facilitate a rapid and successful distribution of medical countermeasures during a public health emergency. Representatives from medical device manufacturing, pharmaceutical distributors, medical supply, and logistics were represented.

A key component of the meeting was discussion about developing a response-specific playbook for the stockpile, which will include information about specific quantities of countermeasures and ancillary supplies that will be needed for varying scenarios and what is available in the marketplace. Next steps in this partnership include creating workgroups to study product availability, supply and demand, and acceptable product substitutions in an emergency.

Learn more about Stockpile Partnerships

Content source: Division of Strategic National Stockpile

Strategic National Stockpile is a division of the Office of Public Health Preparedness and Response.