USA's Rx Response raised to "Alert Status"

Rx Response, a partnership created after the 2005 Hurricane Katrina by drugmakers and health care groups to help ensure the continued flow of  medicines to patients in the event of a severe public health emergency,  has been put on Alert Status as concerns grow over the health threat  posed by outbreaks of swine flu in the USA. Billy Tauzin, president and  chief executive of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of  America (PhRMA), one of the Rx Response's founding members, said:  "Americans need to know that the medicines they rely on will be  available even in an emergency. Rx Response provides federal and state  crisis managers with the critical information they need about the  pharmaceutical supply chain to help communities affected by an emergency  return to normal as quickly as possible."