Scapa Healthcare Leverages Its Manufacturing Capabilities to Rapidly Support Hand Sanitizer Demand During COVID-19 Pandemic
August 2020
Background
To curb the spread of the novel coronavirus, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) heavily emphasized that everyday preventive actions such as hand washing for at least 20 seconds with soap and warm water and the use of hand sanitizers can help prevent the spread of COVID-19. If soap and water are not available, the CDC recommends that people “use alcohol-based hand sanitizers containing at least 60% alcohol.”
Scapa Healthcare, the trusted strategic partner of choice for the world’s leading companies in advanced wound care, consumer wellness and medical device fixation, has the ability and expertise to formulate and produce topical skin care solutions, including alcohol-free hand sanitizers. Although manufacturing alcohol-based hand sanitizers is not its core competency, the company wanted to do its part to help people stay safer and reduce the spread of COVID-19, per CDC recommendations.
The Problem
As the COVID-19 pandemic expanded globally, demand for hand sanitizers considerably increased, with many stores and online suppliers running out of stock for prolonged periods. Even some healthcare providers were unable to get ahold of sufficient quantities of alcohol-based hand sanitizers to maintain safe practices while treating patients infected with COVID-19 or other illnesses in hospital environments.
In response to this unprecedented demand for alcohol-based sanitizers during the public health emergency, the FDA released temporary guidance allowing certain entities not currently regulated by the FDA as drug manufacturers to prepare and distribute alcohol-based hand sanitizer products for public use.
The Solution
The new FDA guidance gave Scapa the opportunity to produce alcohol-based hand sanitizers. Upon a careful review of all Scapa Healthcare manufacturing sites, it was decided to leverage the Windsor, Connecticut facility’s infrastructure for handling alcohol products to temporarily support the production of alcohol-based hand sanitizers.
The Windsor site’s operations team was able to rapidly register the site with the FDA and obtain the required regulatory licenses to start temporary production of alcohol-based hand sanitizers as quickly as possible. The team was also able to leverage Scapa Healthcare’s global supply chain to expedite the purchasing of all necessary raw materials. Scapa Healthcare was able to get the full operation up and running in a matter of weeks to be an active resource contributor in the fight against COVID-19.
Scapa Healthcare continues to look for creative ways to leverage its capabilities to support its global healthcare partners with urgently needed medical products during the ongoing global healthcare crisis.