MEDIA RELEASE 7 MAY 2020 – Members of the National Pharmaceutical Services Association (NPSA) have recorded an historic milestone distributing more than 70 million PBS medicines during March and April, according to data collated by the industry body.
Increased demand caused by COVID-19 has seen more medicines delivered to the community over this period than at any other time in Australia’s history with volumes up more than 70 per cent in March.
The national wholesaler network, operating within the framework of the Community Service Obligation (CSO), receives, warehouses and distributes medicines and pharmacy products, filling daily orders placed by more than 5,500 community pharmacies around Australia.
NPSA Chairman Mark Hooper said, “We’ve seen extraordinary pressure across all segments of the supply chain and appreciate the difficulties experienced by consumers as certain shortages continue however, the infrastructure and systems we have in place across the wholesaler network have withstood the test.
“On behalf of the NPSA Board I want to thank the more than 3000 men and women who work across the wholesaler network whose hard work and dedication has served the Australian people so well. This behind the scenes workforce is made up of distribution centre workers, customer support teams, security officers, freight drivers, IT personnel, managers and office support staff.
“These are everyday Australians who have gone above and beyond during a time of great need for our country, working long hours under significant pressure to ensure communities across the country can continue to access vital medicines in a timely manner.
“The CSO framework has played a key part in this and enabled us to respond constructively to the early volatile environment, preserving medicine availability and ensuring equity of access to medicines.
“We recognise the hard work and challenges faced by community pharmacists at this time. We appreciate the collaborative efforts of government, medicine manufacturers and pharmacy as supply chain stakeholders continue to manage the COVID-19 environment.”
The National Pharmaceutical Services Association represents CSO wholesalers Australian Pharmaceutical Industries, National Pharmacies, Sigma Healthcare and Symbion.
Contact: Myles Wallace on 0432 866 094 or mwallace@micwar.com.au