STILL FIGHTING THE GOOD FIGHT
Tending to the condition of the nation means looking after every citizen regardless of income, status, race, ethnicity or religion.
READY AND WAITING
DLA Distribution receives COVID-19 test kits on Jan. 18, at a contracted warehouse in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. As part of the White House and HHS initiative, DLA is shipping the tests to USPS hubs in New Jersey, Maryland, Indiana and Texas. (Photo by DLA Public Affairs)
Army for Acquisition, Logistics and Technology, which managed programs of record and established the pipeline that made the global response successful.
said that “When the pandemic started, [the Joint Project Manager for Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear Medical] was helping HHS with some of their contracting requirements, but it wasn’t sustainable as the pandemic continued, and the mission kept expanding to meet global needs. JA2 came in to provide experts with experience using agile contracting vehi- cles and streamlined acquisition processes to help meet evolving requirements with accelerated timelines, while maintaining the DOD acquisition standards.”
Te vaccines, therapeutics and enablers team had to manage drug development processes that could ordinarily take a decade or more, with timelines that could address a public health emer- gency. Following the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulations and leveraging years of associated development efforts allowed the country to receive vaccines and therapeu- tics in record time. Several of the products and development efforts started under the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the
Lt. Col. Owen Roberts II leads the vaccines, therapeutics and enablers team, and is responsible for coordinating more than $56 billion worth of contracts in support of the national COVID-19 response. Tis includes seven vaccine contracts totaling $35.5 billion obligated to procure more than two billion doses in total; nine therapeutic contracts totaling $22 billion, yielding more than 22 million doses; and 13 contracts enabling vaccine delivery.
To support the distribution of these product quantities, the U.S. government had to coordinate and stand up IT ordering systems for distribution and planning within a matter of weeks. Tese distribution plans impacted contract terms and negotiations to ensure all systems and stakeholders were connected. Te vaccines, therapeutics and enablers team navigated these challenges success- fully because, as Roberts said, “With an acquisition mindset you can get ahead of some of the challenges—and being the Army, with our experience in supporting the warfighter, we have this experience to think critically about long-term systems.”
It is easy to get lost in the numbers. It is difficult to overstate the hard work and persistence the vaccines, therapeutics and enablers team used to achieve these goals. “Contracts had to be awarded and requirements written based on information in real
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Army AL&T Magazine
Summer 2022
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