BIAL has just announced the creation of a fund, with an allocation of 500 thousand Euros, to support several community initiatives in the fight against the coronavirus.
"BIAL, as a pharmaceutical company, in addition to ensuring the total maintenance of its activity, which is critical for millions of patients, also intended to make its contribution to the community by creating a fund that we endowed with half a million euros.", said António Portela, CEO of the company.
“Unfortunately, we are experiencing a crisis of Public Health worldwide, where the collaboration between all stakeholders - States, governments, universities, companies and society in general - is crucial. With this action, BIAL aims to respond to different needs, some of which have already reached us, from health professionals and institutions, from welfare institutions or within the scope of programs and projects addressed to provide better provision care.”, adds António Portela.
Ensuring the supply of medicines in the markets where the company operates is critical for BIAL, which currently does not anticipate constraints in terms of the continuous supply of its medicines. With most employees on home office, people from the Industrial, Quality and Logistics areas continue to work at the company's headquarters, that have extended the production period to reinforce the stocks of their medicines.
Having health and safety of its employees and the continuity of the company's operations as priorities, BIAL has defined and has been updating, since the beginning of March, a Contingency Plan focused on the prevention and control of the new coronavirus. Among the measures adopted, BIAL proactively suspended all direct interactions of its employees with Pharmacies, Doctors and other Health Professionals. All visits to the company's headquarters were also cancelled, except for the ones related with the supply of products and materials essential to the maintenance of its activity, as well as the dispatch of medicines. At the same time, a series of measures were reinforced to ensure the safety of employees who remain working, namely in terms of hygiene and social distance.
BIAL is constantly monitoring the authorities' guidelines to act accordingly, to update - if necessary - the Contingency Plan that is underway and to ensure that its medicines continue to reach all patients in need.
