‘Business Preparedness’ is a term rarely used outside the boardroom, but in light of the COVID-19 crisis, it’s gaining new relevance. Currently, it’s on everyone’s agenda and at the forefront of most internal meetings.
Pharma has had to react and respond very quickly, in order to manage the pandemic’s potential impact, which has led many to immediately set into motion a series of initiatives to ensure that we responded effectively.
Global Problem, Global Response
Pharma and government agencies are responding around the world, working vigorously on a number of fronts to combat the virus. Taiwan, for example, has been recognized in the media for its efforts to help stop the disease on both social and scientific fronts.
As a global pharmaceutical developer and contract manufacturing supply chain partner in Taiwan, we’ve yet to experience any significant impact from the pandemic and we may owe much of it to our country’s vigorous response. From a business preparedness standpoint globally, we acted swiftly and secured all our facilities in a similar manner.
Priority One: Employee Safety
Focusing on operations and factory staff first, we introduced policies in line with the World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines and launched several best-practice initiatives. This included an immediate and comprehensive cleaning and sanitizing campaign across all our facilities and offices, additional to the existing cleaning protocols in place.
Organizationally, we implemented a separate office scheme and work-from-home plan, as well as a temporary crisis operations mode. Currently, many team members now work from home but are accommodated if they need to visit a site to complete essential tasks.
Production is also run on segregated shifts so that in the case of an exposure, Bora is ready with a protocol that automatically sends all the people on that shift home or quarantine and prompts the call-up of a new unexposed shift to maintain production.
For the duration, we’re holding weekly internal COVID-19 update meetings to keep leadership, science, regulatory and operational departments on the same page. That includes updates on how COVID-19 is affecting each department and provides an opportunity to share recent learnings and best practices.
Lastly, we’ve instituted a cross-discipline Crisis Management Committee to oversee the development of internal programs to effectively manage the company through this crisis. For the foreseeable future, we’ll be meeting weekly to update business units, operations, and partners on our efforts.
Preparing for What’s Ahead
As a global pharmaceutical company, we are proud of the role we take in sustaining reliable drug supplies globally. In light of the pandemic, it’s hard to understate the contribution the contract pharmaceutical manufacturing industry will have combatting COVID-19 now and stopping diseases like it in the future. In the meantime, Bora will continue to manage operations in line with our contingency planning and business preparedness plans.
