AdvaMed urges Biden to prioritize transportation of medical equipment

WASHINGTON – AdvaMed President and CEO Scott Whittaker has asked President Biden to make the transport of medical supplies and equipment a “top priority” during the current logistics and transport crisis. 

“While we appreciate that multiple industries are affected by these disruptions, we believe the implications for the health care system and patient care are imperative as we head into the fall, which brings with it flu season and uncertainty around COVID-19 variants in unvaccinated populations,” the letter states. 

AdvaMed points out in the letter that the challenges at major U.S. and international ports – including container shortages, limited unloading space and insufficient trucking capacity – continue as purchasing behavior in the country has dramatically shifted during the pandemic. 

The association also highlighted how the medical device industry has ramped up to around-the-clock operations to meet the increased demand due to the pandemic – exponentially increasing PPE production, ramping up ventilator manufacturing by more than tenfold and shipping more than 1 billion tests in the U.S. within 15 months. 

AdvaMed thanked the administration for its efforts to ensure patients have the care they need stating, “In particular, we’ve appreciated the dedicated work of your COVID-19 response team, which has been working tirelessly to address supply chain bottlenecks and disruptions to facilitate our industry’s efforts to tackle the pandemic.”

AdvaMed is a medical technology association representing more than 400 companies. 

2021-06-22 President Biden Letter.pdf (file.ac)