COVID-19 vaccine readiness

Cardinal Health is committed to doing our part to help Americans get vaccinated so we can begin to put COVID-19 behind us. We stand ready and willing to help the federal and state governments, the public health community and other distributors execute a successful distribution plan. Once vaccines are approved, the full supply chain is critical to a successful vaccination effort, with each part – manufacturers, federal and state governments, public health experts, distributors and providers – playing a distinct and vital role. We believe that to properly, fairly, quickly and safely vaccinate the entire United States population, we will eventually need the full capacity of the U.S. commercial pharmaceutical distribution system. The current plan needs redundancy, resiliency and flexibility built in to reduce vulnerability and allow quick augmentation if more capacity is needed.

Cardinal Health is an essential link in the supply chain, and our scale, breadth and expertise make us a critical partner to help the country get vaccinated and move on from the pandemic. What we do matters, and we intend to be ready to support our customers when they need us. We are engaging with all stakeholders, including our customers, suppliers, employees, and local, federal and state government partners, to support the dissemination of COVID-19 vaccines in the most resilient and effective manner possible.  Our current involvement includes:

We contracted with the CDC as a network administrator to enable certain of our pharmacy customers to administer the vaccine. As a result, more than 4,300 retail independent, small chain and long-term care pharmacy customers are able to participate in the vaccine effort. For more information read the press release about our participation in the program.

Various states are handling distribution within their jurisdictions differently, and plans are still evolving at a rapid pace. We were selected by the Ohio Department of Health to support the distribution of COVID-19 vaccine within the state of Ohio.  Once a vaccine is available and Ohio receives doses for in-state distribution, the Cardinal Health OptiFreight® Logistics business will arrange for same-day delivery services to approximately 350 locations across 88 counties. The state of Ohio currently expects initial vaccine doses to require special handling and temperature control, and OptiFreight® Logistics will leverage its expertise managing the transportation of sensitive products to ensure safe, successful delivery. For more information, please read the press release about our partnership with the state of Ohio.

We are one of the companies supplying needles and syringes to the Strategic National Stockpile for inclusion in kits to accompany vaccine doses. For more information read the press release about our participation in the program.

As healthcare providers are playing an active role in COVID-19 vaccine deployment, here are five important considerations to help ensure healthcare organizations are best prepared to safely deploy COVID-19 vaccines to both patients and staff as we all work together to undertake one of the most important public health endeavors of our time.

We are prepared to increase our involvement in subsequent phases as our customers call on us to help. We continue to work to ensure we have the technological and digital capabilities to link with the government’s COVID-19 vaccine systems, to be ready at a moment’s notice.

The COVID-19 vaccine effort is one of the most important challenges of our lifetimes, and Cardinal Health is essential to care.