Here are five ASC supply chain updates published by Becker's since July 7:
- With the impending summer dip in donors, blood centers across the U.S. face a national blood shortage. Six months ago, the organization that supplies nearly half of the nation's blood supply, the Red Cross, declared its first national crisis.
- HHS ordered 144,000 monkeypox vaccines to combat the rising cases in the U.S. and said it plans to deploy the doses by July 11.
- Ace Surgical Supply Co., a bone regenerative products and surgical supplies provider, and Southern Anesthesia and Surgical, a U.S. distributor of anesthesia and surgical supplies, merged July 6, forming a new company, Ace Southern.
- HST Pathways, an ASC-focused software company, and Advantien, an ASC-focused supply chain company, formed a partnership to help surgery centers streamline their implant-purchasing systems. The partnership allows the companies to simplify implant buying through centralized purchasing.
- The U.S. bought 3.2 million doses of Novavax's two-shot COVID-19 vaccine July 11 despite the vaccine-maker still awaiting FDA authorization. On June 7, an independent FDA panel voted 21-0, with one absentee, to recommend Novavax's vaccine for COVID-19 emergency use authorization for adults.