Arkansas Children’s Joins 10 Other Leading Children’s Hospitals and Phlow Corp. to form an Unprecedented Coalition to Deliver Essential Medicines to Address Pediatric Drug Shortages

LITTLE ROCK, AR. (March 18, 2021) – Arkansas Children’s today joins a first-in-kind coalition bringing together some of the nation’s top children’s hospitals, in collaboration with Phlow, to provide certainty in availability and access for key medicines necessary to sustain life and conquer disease. The groundbreaking Children’s Hospital Coalition: Powered by PhlowTM (CHC) will address the nation’s broken essential medicines supply chain. 

"As the only pediatric health system in our state, Arkansas Children’s is committed to fulfilling Our Promise: Unprecedented Child Health. Defined and Delivered,” said Marcy Doderer, FACHE, Arkansas Children’s president and CEO. “Together with Phlow, and other children’s hospitals across the country, we will work to ensure a reliable and affordable supply of high-quality essential medicines. Arkansas Children’s is honored to participate in this initiative and looks forward to collaborating with others to assess the medicine shortage and supply chain management issues experienced throughout the country.”

Shortages of essential medicines for children are a persistent problem plaguing hospitals across the United States. A 2019 survey of 330 U.S. hospitals, including 29 pediatric hospitals, demonstrated that medicine shortages disproportionately and uniquely impact children’s hospitals. (Vizient, 2020) The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed further vulnerabilities in the overall U.S. hospital supply chain, particularly regarding essential injectable medications. To address this issue, the CHC is charged with a mission to deliver on the promise of ensuring a reliable supply of high-quality, affordable essential medicines to treat children.

“The care of America’s children is unnecessarily impacted by essential medicine shortages, which often leads to compromised patient care, clinician frustration, and increased hospital pharmacy costs and inefficiencies,” said Eric Edwards, MD, PhD, co-founder, president and CEO of Phlow. “By empowering an innovative and unique coalition of the top children’s hospitals in the country, we will be able to work with visionary leaders to solve this chronic and vexing problem.”

The 11 founding hospital members of the CHC are: Arkansas Children’s, Boston Children’s Hospital, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, Children’s Hospital of Richmond at VCU, Children’s National, Children’s Wisconsin, Cincinnati Children’s, Cook Children’s, Intermountain Primary Children’s Hospital, Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago and Nationwide Children’s.

The coalition is working together to further escalate this issue on the national agenda, to encourage children’s hospitals to join in this cause, and educate other hospitals on how this coalition will aid in ending shortages of essential medicines. Ultimately, the goal of the CHC is to increase the resiliency and reliability of the pediatric pharmaceutical supply chain.

The founding members of the CHC, including Phlow, recognize that essential medicine supply is a critical problem nationwide and welcome new children’s hospital members to join in this bold initiative. Please visit www.childrenshospitalcoalition.com for more information on how to join the CHC.

ABOUT ARKANSAS CHILDREN’S

Arkansas Children's, Inc. is the only healthcare system in the state solely dedicated to caring for Arkansas' more than 700,000 children. The private, non-profit organization includes two pediatric hospitals, a pediatric research institute and USDA nutrition center, a philanthropic foundation, a nursery alliance, statewide clinics, and many education and outreach programs — all focused on fulfilling a promise to define and deliver unprecedented child health. Arkansas Children’s Hospital (ACH) is a 336-bed, Magnet-recognized facility in Little Rock operating the state’s only Level I pediatric trauma center; the state's only burn center; the state's only Level IV neonatal intensive care unit; the state's only pediatric intensive care unit; the state’s only pediatric surgery program with Level 1 verification from the American College of Surgeons (ACS); the state’s only magnetoencephalography (MEG) system for neurosurgical planning and cutting-edge research; and the state's only nationally recognized pediatric transport program. Additionally, ACH is nationally ranked by U.S. News & World Report in four pediatric subspecialties (2020—2021): Cardiology & Heart Surgery, Nephrology, Pulmonology and Urology. ACH is one of only five hospitals in the nation that have achieved Magnet Status, ACS Level 1 verification and a Beacon award from the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses. Arkansas Children’s Northwest (ACNW), the first and only pediatric hospital in the Northwest Arkansas region, is a level IV pediatric trauma center. ACNW operates a 24-bed inpatient unit; a surgical unit with five operating rooms; outpatient clinics offering over 20 subspecialties; diagnostic services; imaging capabilities; occupational therapy services; and Northwest Arkansas' only pediatric emergency department, equipped with 30 exam rooms. Generous philanthropic and volunteer engagement has sustained  Arkansas Children's since it began as an orphanage in 1912, and today ensures the system can deliver on its promise of unprecedented child health. To learn more, visit archildrens.org.

ABOUT PHLOW

Phlow Corp. is a trailblazing, essential medicines impact company that is reimagining essential medicines from start to finish through the use of flow chemistry. Everything Phlow does is designed to promote access to affordable, high-quality essential medicines for all Americans. Phlow provides a solution to the broken essential medicines supply chain by offering a resilient end-to-end solution that is U.S.-based, comprehensive, and fully integrated. With the support of an industry leading team, experienced strategic partners, and established relationships at the policy, regulatory, and federal levels, Phlow will manufacture active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and finished pharmaceutical products domestically for essential medicines critical to the nation’s healthcare. Through the use of continuous-flow technology and green chemistry, Phlow is able to reduce costs and waste, improve quality and yield, and offer a more environmentally friendly alternative to batch manufacturing.

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