HoG Helps to Close the Gap for the World Federation of Hemophilia
Horizons in Hemophilia, April 2013
By Trish Dominic, CEO
The theme of World Hemophilia Day, on April 17, 2013, is Close the Gap. Over 75% of the world population affected by bleeding disorders has no access to care and treatment. The World Federation of Hemophilia (WFH) strives to make care and treatment more accessible to people around the world. In celebration of World Hemophilia Day, we thought we would share with you what HoG has done over the past years to help people around the world access treatment.
In 1998, HoG agreed to serve as a contract pharmacy for the World Federation USA. The World Federation USA was created as a subsidiary of the World Federation of Hemophilia to receive contributions of clotting factor products from pharmaceutical companies with plants in the U.S. By donating to the U.S.-based subsidiary, the companies can receive tax deductions for their contributions.
We were a contract pharmacy for almost a year before we sent our first shipments, which included 220,080 units of factor that went to two countries. Since 1999, HoG’s pharmacy team has shipped 164,108,754 units of clotting factor products to 74 unique countries in 733 shipments. We have had some slow years when donations of product have been as small as 52,680 units of product but then some outstanding years when we have shipped over 46 million units of product. We have had volunteers come from India to pack up factor in suitcases and return to their county.
Our pharmacy team does an excellent job of moving product in and out of HoG’s doors as quickly as possible at the direction of the World Federation. We would also like to note that the World Federation raises money to pay for the shipping of the product via FedEx at discounted prices. And, all of the time that the HoG pharmacy and staff provide to the project is donated to the World Federation. We are proud to be able to volunteer our time and expertise to help people with bleeding disorders throughout the world.
We invite you to make a contribution in honor of HoG’s 40th anniversary and World Hemophilia Day. You can do so at https://www.wfh.org/ and help Close the Gap.