Paul Reid, CEO of the HSE visited the United Drug Warehouse on the 29^th of June.

Paul Reid recently visited United Drug and met with the United Drug colleagues who work on the COVID-19 vaccine distribution program. Paul Reid wanted to acknowledge the key role that United Drug employees have played in the vaccine program, and he wanted to personally express his appreciation on behalf of himself and of the Irish government.

Paul Reid CEO of the Health Service Executive, stopped by Magna Park to meet and thank the teams involved in the COVID-19 vaccine processing. He met with Catherine Cummins (Operations Quality Director), David Keyes (Distribution and Hospitals Director) and Paul Reilly (Managing Director) on the morning of the 29^th of June 2021 and they brought him on a walk-through of the United Drug site. They outlined some of the key statistics arising from our vaccine distribution activities and expressed our willingness to engage as a strong partner going forward.

Up until the 30^th of June 2021 the United Drug team have:

• Travelled over 1,000,000 km’s distributing COVID-19 vaccines around the country.
• Completed over 16,000 deliveries in both United Drug Cold Chain vans and helicopters on occasion.
• Delivered over 4.4 million doses of the vaccines since December 2020.
• 26 dedicated vehicles to deliver all the COVID-19

Mr Reid expressed his gratitude to the teams involved and the excellent standard of work they have delivered. He commented on the important role that United Drug have played in the vaccination programme - taking on board the complexity and agility needed to get us to this stage.

United Drug was showcased in the RTE V-Day documentary. This uplifting documentary showed the rollout of the vaccine project and Catherine Cummins our Operations Quality Director was interviewed on United Drug’s role in this project. Not only do you see our role in the storage and distribution of the vaccines, but you get to see the real world impact these vaccines are making to individuals. To view this documentary, click on the below link.

We also had the pleasure of welcoming the Brazilian Ambassador Marcel Biato who came to Magna Park to see and experience our supply chain. The HSE are supporting Brazil with vital medicines to help assist their fight against COVID-19 in Brazil.  It was a proud moment to know we are not only helping to support the supply of medicines in Ireland but also to those countries that need the supplies most. The true gratitude shown to our teams was heartening.

About United Drugs Role in Irelands Immunisation program.

United Drug are the sole provider of storage, distribution, and customer services solutions to the Health Services Executive for all public immunisation programs. This includes the National Flu Campaign and our ongoing support of the National COVID-19 Vaccine roll-out. We are very proud of the role we have played in such an important public health program where our teams have demonstrated highly impressive levels of commitment, flexibility, and business focus within a hugely challenging and high-profile environment.

The COVID-19 vaccines roll-out has been a great challenge for United Drug. Thanks to our great teams who have worked tirelessly to adapt to each request we have built a very high standard for Ireland in the Distribution of the vaccines. For more information on the COVID-19 vaccine roll-out please visit https://www2.hse.ie/screening-and-vaccinations/covid-19-vaccine/