During a severe public health emergency, one of the many critical factors in preserving and protecting public health will be continued access to essential medicines—for treatment of injury or illness caused by the event, as well as continued supply of essential day-to-day medicines to patients for the duration of the emergency.

Though Rx Response partners include the private organizations and trade associations that make up the biopharmaceutical supply system, protecting the biopharmaceutical supply system requires collaboration and coordination with the federal, state, and local agencies responsible for responding to an event. These entities have authority and insight into a situation that the private sector is not privy to - for example, knowledge regarding an event's impact on local jurisdictions, or their state's specific and unique laws and regulations.

In perfect complement to the government's situational / operational expertise, the members of the biopharmaceutical supply system have detailed knowledge about the availability of biopharmaceutical medicines at each step in the supply chain and can also communicate experienced or anticipated barriers to the operation of the supply system that the government agencies can help address.

By partnering public agencies with the private biopharmaceutical supply system sector, Rx Response can quickly identify breaks or barriers to the delivery of medicine and collaboratively work to resolve them.

In addition to interaction with government agencies, Rx Response has developed tools to effectively interact with the vast number of pharmacies across the United States, so that those experiencing operational issues during or following a disaster can communicate their operability status and/or any issues.  Since this group is critical in actually getting medicines in the hands of patients, it is important that they are able to reach out for assistance and provide a more accurate picture of public health within an affected area.

To find out more about Rx Response’s outreach and interactions with these partners, click on the links below:

EMA State Outreach and Plan Appendix

Federal Interactions

End Pharmacy Interactions

A basic situation report will be updated on this page (see the box in the upper right side of the page) during a time of Rx Response activation. State ESF-8 Public Health and Medical coordinators may request member access to request product by completing an access request form for InfoCenter.

Pharmacy Status Reporting during Emergencies
Rx Response and its partners publish known pharmacy openings in disaster affected areas. This information can be used to direct citizens to known open pharmacies.

Pharmacy Status Reporting Maps

Pharmacy Status Reporting FAQs

Learn How Rx Response Works With the EM Community
To help provide a general overview of the Rx Response program, Rx Response has created training videos.  Please click on the links below to view the videos: