Message from Perrigo CEO and President on COVID-19
March 23, 2020
Perrigo Company plc is operating in an unprecedented time for our organization and for the world at large. As we see COVID-19 continue to spread across the countries in which we live and operate, we are mindful that Perrigo has a unique role in this historical situation as the provider of many of the remedies that millions of people are relying on to keep themselves and their families well, to treat their symptoms or ailments, and to help them recover when they fall ill.
In the U.S. and most other countries, companies like Perrigo are being identified as crucial to the COVID-19 response. In fact, the U.S. President released coronavirus guidelines for Americans that expressed this well: “If you work in a critical infrastructure industry, as defined by the Department of Homeland Security, such as healthcare services and pharmaceutical and food supply, you have a special responsibility to maintain your normal work schedule.”
This special responsibility we have been challenged with, to keep our customers’ stores and pharmacies stocked, is keeping us focused on three important priorities.
Keeping our employees informed and safe. We are taking significant precautions at every Perrigo location to protect our people and enable social distancing, including asking all employees who can to work from home, prohibiting all non-essential business travel and utilizing technology to meet and collaborate. We are restricting entry to our facilities to essential personnel only and requiring a pre-screening for possible COVID-19 exposure. We also launched on-line forums for keeping employees up to date and understanding their questions and concerns. These measures are supporting productivity, helping reduce the risk of exposure for all employees and helping our operations and supply chain employees focus on their jobs.
Keeping our production lines running. In addition to restricting our manufacturing facilities to essential personnel only, we have deep sanitization protocols in place and follow strict operating procedures for infectious or communicable disease control. We are also monitoring the evolving regulatory landscape and following business continuity protocols to preserve supplier reliability and product flow. These combined efforts to protect the health and safety of employees, while allowing our facilities to continue operating, have enabled us to maintain a high level of output to meet demand for Perrigo’s products.
Keeping in tune with community needs. People throughout the company are collaborating in new ways and thinking resourcefully, which is leading to creative solutions, such as utilizing capacity to manufacture sanitizer that can be donated to hospitals. And, the Perrigo Company Charitable Foundation and our employees are working on ways to support communities in need.
When I arrived at Perrigo 18 months ago, I anticipated that we would face many challenges as we implement our consumer self-care strategy and return Perrigo to its winning ways. The environment we are in now is beyond any of our wildest imaginations. However, if there is one thing I have learned over the last year and a half, it is that Perrigo has talented, dedicated people who pull together to turn challenges into achievements. Our global team is making me immensely proud as we come together to keep our employees safe, keep the business strong and keep our urgently needed products flowing to customers and consumers.
Through this crisis, we at Perrigo will remain focused on our Vision - To make lives better by bringing Quality, Affordable Self-Care Products™ that consumers trust everywhere they are sold.
Murray Kessler
President and Chief Executive Officer