Global Business Alliance is comprised of a diverse coalition of members whose businesses span numerous industries. These companies are utilizing their expertise, resources and dedicated employees to bring aid to the communities in which they operate and help eradicate the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Medical Innovation
Bayer, bioMerieux, Boehringer Ingelheim, CSL Behring, GlaxoKlineSmith, Novartis, Novo Nordisk, Roche, Sanofi, Siemens, Takeda, Teva Pharmaceuticals
Manufacturing
Anheuser-Busch, Bosch, Daimler, Hitachi, LVMH, Panasonic, Nissan, Pernod Ricard, Philips, Toyota, Volkswagen
Technology
Ericsson, Samsung, Tata Consultancy Services, Thales USA, Inc.
ABB Inc.
ABB worked with Boyce Technologies to help with their development and production of bridge ventilators to supply to hospitals in New York City. ABB’s robotics team from Auburn Hills, Michigan supplied Boyce Technologies with robots for them to be able to switch production and mass produce 300 ventilators per day.
Ahold Delhaize
Ahold Delhaize announced a $10 million relief package that will be distributed among several funds and organizations across the country. The company is designating $2 million for employees funds and their families who are in need during these difficult times. $3.5 million will be allocated to initiatives on the East Coast to help feed and care for communities through local efforts organized by Stop & Shop, Giant Food and Food Lion. Thirty percent of the donation has gone towards local food banks including Central Pennsylvania Food Bank Philabundance, Feeding America food banks and more.The last $1.5 million is being used to help fund medical research focused on curing COVID-19, including research efforts at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Johns Hopkins University and Boston Children’s Hospital.
Airbus
Airbus donated 40,000 face masks to help protect health professionals in Mobile and Baldwin counties in Alabama. The masks were split evenly amongst the Mobile Fire-Rescue Department in Mobile County and the Emergency Management Agency in Baldwin County. These two agencies are in charge of distributing the masks with the guidance from the Alabama Department of Public Health. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Airbus is working on transforming its biotechnology with California-based Koniku to include the identification of biological hazards that could be capable of detecting coronavirus on planes.
Air Liquide
Air Liquide is committed to working with patients and medical professionals to fight the pandemic. The healthcare team is prioritizing the increasing need for medical oxygen and ramping up its production of ventilators for respiratory assistance, which is critical equipment for patients who are severely affected by the virus. The company is anticipating to double its production of ventilators in March and projects it has the capacity to quadruple production by June, if necessary.
Anheuser-Busch
Anheuser-Busch announced it will begin production of hand sanitizer to be distributed to vulnerable and hard-hit communities in America. AB will be using its supply and logistics network to pivot from its alcohol production to produce and distribute hand sanitizer. The increased manufacturing of the hand sanitizer is addressing the shortage of product and need to continue individual hygiene efforts. Anheuser-Busch is the largest sponsor of live sports and entertainment in the United States and has decided to redirect its sports and entertainment investments to its non-profit affiliates who are supporting the COVID-19 response efforts. AB made a $1 million donation to the U.S. Bartender Emergency Assistance Program and a 50 percent reimbursement for untapped, out-of-code beer through July 1. AB is donating $5 million to the American Red Cross to support first responders on the front lines of the coronavirus health crisis. As part of the donation, AB will work with the American Red Cross and its sports partners to identify available arenas and stadiums to be used for temporary blood drive centers. Its brewery tour centers in Merrimack, NH, and St. Louis, MO, will also be made available to the Red Cross. Lastly, AB is donating its media airtime to the Red Cross in support of its public service announcements.
Astellas Pharma US, Inc.
Astellas Pharma US and the Astellas Global Health Foundation are expanding support for communities fighting COVID-19 by providing up to $2 million in financial assistance. This support will help meet the urgent demand for resources needed to help patients, healthcare workers and first responders. In the United States, Astellas is preparing to help humanitarian organizations, including Americares, the American Red Cross and Direct Relief, which are all working to support communities affected by the pandemic. The company is also coordinating opportunities to mobilize equipment, personal protective equipment (PPE) donations, blood donations, employee contributions and volunteerism. Astellas is also offering paid time-off to its employees who are medically qualified practitioners, medically qualified volunteers or individuals seeking to support organizations in their local communities.
AstraZeneca
AstraZeneca donated 3 million surgical masks to Direct Relief to support U.S. healthcare workers treating COVID-19 patients. AstraZeneca was able to obtain these masks through its manufacturing connections. The level 1 surgical masks will be distributed by Direct Relief to health institutions in regions that demonstrate the most significant public health need, including underserved and vulnerable communities. A portion of the donated masks will also be sent to emergency management agencies in states where AstraZeneca has a large employee presence.
AVANGRID
The AVANGRID Foundation and AVANGRID, Inc. announced a $2 million donation to support national and community-based organizations working to help victims of the COVID-19 healthcare crisis. The company is allocating $1 million in corporate funds, which will be distributed across the regions in which it operates to support critical needs in communities at the state and local level. The AVANGRID Foundation is donating the other $1 million, which will provide support to its partner organizations nationwide that are providing crisis response and community support during the pandemic. AVANGRID is donating over 30,000 protective face masks to emergency responders in Connecticut, Maine and New York. The AVANGRID Logistics staff received a supply of required PPE needed to continue to safely work, and set aside the extra 16,000 surgical masks and 15,000 N95 respirators for donation. The donations will go to three institutions in need, including the Maine Emergency Management Agency (MEMA), New York State primary entities, and Yale-New Haven Health in Connecticut. Three AVANGRID subsidiaries including United Illuminating, Southern Connecticut Gas and Connecticut Natural Gas are donating $210,000 to local organizations in Connecticut working to help individuals and businesses impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, all AVANGRID companies have suspended shut-offs for nonpayment, late fees, interest and security deposits.
BASF Corporation
BASF began producing hand sanitizer at its facilities in Michigan and New Jersey to help the front-line workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. It announced its Wyandotte, Michigan plant is donating 800 gallons of hand sanitizer to the state of Ohio due to the supply shortages in the state. To date, BASF has donated over 9,500 gallons of hand sanitizer that was donated to New York, New Jersey, Michigan, Texas, Louisiana, Ohio and California. BASF has also donated other critical supplies including disinfectants, hand soap, face masks, gloves and protective gear to communities across the United States. BASF Corporation is donating $170,000 to Feeding America to help with hunger relief. BASF’s North America Agricultural Solutions U.S. employees carried out a virtual food drive throughout March and April to help supply Feeding America food banks. BASF employees made financial contributions during the virtual food drive and BASF Corp matched donations dollar-for-dollar for the entire virtual drive. BASF’s additional donation of $195,000 through corporate and individual facility donations brings the total donation to over $365,000 to Feeding America’s COVID-19 hunger relief efforts. BASF and its employees at the Geismer, Louisiana sites donate $40,000 towards United Way's COVID-19 response efforts for women and veterans.
Bayer
Bayer is working with the U.S. government to provide assistance on fighting COVID-19 by donating the drug Resochin, which has the potential to boost patients’ immune system response to the virus. It will be donating 3 million tablets of the drug for research purposes to combat the virus.
B. Braun Medical, Inc.
B. Braun receives an Emergency Use Authorization of its Perfusor Space Syringe Infusion Pump, Infusomat Space Volumetric Infusion Pump, and Outlook ES Pump systems issued by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. These infusion pumpswill be used to administer continuous nebulized medications to treat patients diagnosed with or suspected to have the COVID-19 disease. This process will also decreases the exposure of healthcare providers to infected patients during the COVID-19 pandemic. It protects health care providers, while still allowing them to treat critically ill patients on ventilators. Additionally, studies show that using infusion pumps with nebulizers can help provide consistent, controlled delivery of nebulized medication to patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), which some of the most critical COVID-19 patients suffer from.
BBVA
BBVA is offering special assistance for its individual and small business owner customers who are adversely affected financially by the ongoing health crisis. The bank is offering penalty-free withdrawals from certain deposit accounts, ATM free refunds, and payment deferrals, extensions and waivers. These special offers are currently available to its customer base across the United States until April 17, and it will be potentially extending the date as needed. BBVA announced on March 25, additional assistance offers for its customers including fixed rate small business loans, refunds on overdraft fees, small businesses can request waivers of services charge fees on deposit accounts and special assistance and rates for advances on existing home equity lines of credit.
BIC Corp.
BIC is manufacturing personal protective equipment (PPE) at its facilities and donating to hospitals and governments around the world. BIC has also donated over 2.4 million stationary, lighter and shaver products to organizations that support healthcare professionals, children and homeless communities around the world. In the United States, BIC is collaborating with The Kids In Need Foundation to donate pencils to students in need. They launched the #PostForPencils Campaign, which entails a 20-pencil donation to underserved students, up to 1.5 million pencils, every time a social media post is shared using the #PostForPencils hashtag. BIC has found that pencils are the most requested school supply. Over five million students in America do not have access to technology or the internet at home, so pencils are critical to their at-home schooling success during the COVID-19 pandemic.
bioMerieux
bioMérieux, a leader in the field of in vitro diagnostics, is launching three different tests to address the COVID-19 Pandemic. The tests are aimed at meeting the varied needs of medical professionals and health authorities to battle the emerging pandemic by testing patients. bioMérieux finalized creation of the SARS-COV-2 R-GENE test that is clinically validated on one type of respiratory specimen and will be accessible end of March. It’s anticipating the test to be submitted to the FDA for an Emergency Use Authorization. The other two tests are fully-automated and based on the company’s Biofire FilmArray technology, which is designed to detect SARS-CoV-2 and portray results in approximately 45 minutes. On March 24, the U.S. FDA approved it with an Emergency Use Authorization for use in CLIA moderate and high complexity clinical laboratories to detect SARS-CoV-2. The two FilmArray tests will be produced in Salt Lake City, Utah and are able to run at any hospital or lab with bioMérieux’s system in place. In addition, the company’s current easyMAG and EMAG systems that are produced in Italy under license from the United States, are already deployed in many large laboratories for nucleic acid extraction as part of the current COVID-19 testing. In the beginning of May, bioMérieux announced performance validation and the upcoming launch of serology tests for SARS-CoV-2 on VIDAS, which can detect antibodies in individuals exposed to the SARS-CoV-2 that causes the COVID-19 disease. On May 4, bioMérieux received Emergency Use Authorization from the U.S. FDA for its Biofire RP2.1 panel that includes 22 pathogens that cause respiratory infections, including SARS-CoV-2. The inclusion of SARS-CoV-2 in the panel will allow healthcare professionals to efficiently identify patients with respiratory pathogens, as well as those with COVID-19, using a single test that only takes 45 minutes for results to appear.
BNP Paribas
BNP announces a $55 million global donation to help fight the COVID-19 virus. A significant portion of this donation, allocated by BNP Paribas USA and its affiliate Bank of the West, will go to hospitals in the United States. The bank is making large monetary donations to five U.S. hospitals including Martin Luther King Jr. Community Hospital in Los Angeles, NYC Health + Hospitals, UCSF Medical Center in San Francisco, PIH Health Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Angeles, and Swedish Medical Center in Seattle. These hospitals are using the donation to procure essential medical supplies, fund COVID-19 testing and fund other COVID-19 programs to battle the virus. In addition to these monetary-based contributions, BNP and Bank of the West are also donating a collective 600,000 masks in the United States, matching 1:1 employee donations to various charities, and supporting its charitable partners who are providing relief to under-resourced individuals and small businesses in New York and New Jersey. BNP Paribas in the United States has also organized a virtual volunteer program for its employees to get involved.
Boehringer Ingelheim
As a research-based company, Boehringer Ingelheim is working to draw from its past and present research initiatives to help support medical solutions to fight against the pandemic. It is currently joining forces with academic researchers, international institutions and pharmaceutical companies to do so. Scientists at BI have created a comprehensive library of medical research in developing new medicines; in it’s fight to tackle the pandemic, its scientists are screening the entire library to draw potential molecular solutions that can be used against this virus. BI is also joining the COVID-19 Therapeutics Accelerator of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to help fight the pandemic. Boehringer Ingelheim will contribute compounds, which the Accelerator will be testing by using three methods: testing already approved drugs for their potential to treat COVID-19, examining compounds with drug-like properties and trying out new investigational compounds.
Bombardier Inc.
Bombardier Transportation is dedicated to keeping its employees safe while maintaining its commitments to customers and ensuring safe, continuous service operations. Bombardier is providing essential services to the hardest hit communities in the United States including providing reliable train service to ensure that essential workers have access to transportation during these unprecedentedly challenging times. JFK Airtrain and PI is serving JFK, Queens NY and NYCT. With 740 train starts per day, 11 commuter/light rail O&M sites and 2,000 assets, Bombardier is prepared to keep these cities moving and providing safe transportation options for critical employees working in New York. In order to keep these sites safe, Bombardier has significantly ramped up the frequency and scope of its cleaning and disinfecting measures, followed local governmental guidelines and adjusted shift distribution to enforce social distancing protocol. Lastly, Bombardier implemented strict global travel restriction to limit the spread of the virus and created local Emergency Committees with a direct line of communication to a single global COVID-19 Corporate Task Force.
Bosch
The Bosch facility in Anderson, South Carolina has turned the plant into a laboratory to make hand sanitizer for Bosch sites, which saves commercially available hand sanitizers for medical professionals’ use. Within three days, the facility was able to start production and has the capacity to produce up to 300 gallons of sanitizer per week.
BP
The BP Foundation announces a $2 million donation to the WHO’s COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund. This fund was created by the United Nations Foundation, and works to support medical professionals and patients by donating crucial aid and supplies. The fund also supports tracking endeavors to help monitor the spread of COVID-19 and aid in the treatment with vaccine and testing initiatives. In order to support critical workers during these challenging times, BP is offering first responders, doctors, nurses & hospital workers 50 cents off per gallon discount on their next fill up at BP and Amoco gas stations across the country. In the United States, BP subsidiary, Air BP, is donating 3 million gallons of jet fuel to its customers, FedEx and Alaska Airlines, to help support their deliveries of medical equipment and other essential goods and mail to areas hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. BP also pledges to offset all carbon emissions of its donated fuel through the BP Target Neutral program.
Bunge Ltd.
Bunge announces a $2.5 million commitment to provide COVID-19 relief. This donation will address health and food security needs directly associated with the pandemic in the communities where Bunge operates. Bunge employees are committed to continuing their critical work in order to supply safe and healthy food to the greater population and ensure limited disruptions to the food supply chain.
Chubb
Chubb is donating $1 million to the nonprofit Project Hope, a global health and humanitarian relief organization founded in the United States in 1958. The organization is focused on obtaining personal protective equipment (PPE) and other critical medical equipment and organizing the delivery of these supplies to medical professionals across the country. It’s collaborating with Healthcare Ready and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to supply the equipment to hospitals working to treat patients and stop the spread of the novel coronavirus. Chubb also contributed $1.7 million to International Medical Corps to provide much needed assistance to hospitals. Chubb’s donation will go towards providing vulnerable and hard-hit communities with additional medical supplies and extra staffing support. International Medical Corps is deploying 300 medical professionals and sending urgently needed supplies to hospitals and healthcare facilities throughout the country.
CNH Industrial
CNH Industrial’s sites in the United States donated 2,500 KN95 masks to local medical facilties. In order to address the shortage of PPE in the United States, CNH’s manufacturing sites identified protective masks in its inventory and donated them to help keep healthcare providers and communities safe during the COVID-19 pandemic. Each CNH Industrial site in New Holland, PA, Grand Island, NE, Racine, WI, Wichita, KS, and Lebanon, IN, donated 500 KN95 respirator face masks to their respective local medical facilities to keep healthcare professionals working on the front lines protected. CNH is donating $2 million to the CNH Industrial Foundation and to other global charitable projects to support communities severely impacted by the pandemic. This donation is in addition to CNH’s ongoing donations of medical equipment supplies, including ventilators, PPE, electrical generators and ambulances, to healthcare providers in the regions in which the company operates worldwide. To demonstrate solidarity with its employees, the CNH Industrial senior management team has decided to temporarily forego part of its compensation. The Company’s Board of Directors agreed to forego their remuneration for the rest of the year, the Acting Chief Executive Officer is taking a 50 percent salary reduction for three months, and the Global Executive Committee is taking a 20 percent salary reduction for three months.
Compass Group
Compass Group associates are on the front lines helping to alleviate the healthcare crisis our country is facing. Its Morrison Healthcare and Crothall Healthcare associates teamed up to help fight COVID-19 at the Javits Center in New York City. They joined forces with the Javits Center to serve as a temporary medical facility, housing COVID-19 patients to open up space at the overcrowded and overwhelmed local New York hospitals. Twenty-four of Compass Group’s Eurest chefs at UnitedHealth Group are preparing over 21,000 nutritional meals a week for those in need in Minnesota. Its Eurest Service associates in San Diego are helping protect essential workers by creating and distributing over 200,000 masks for employees at client locations across the United States. Additionally its Chartwells K12 teams have prepared and delivered more than 20 million meals to students in need during these school closures. Its Compass One Healthcare associates are providing support to the patients it serves across the country.
CSL Behring
In addition to CSL Behring's ongoing medical developments and clinical trials, the company is also providing its technical expertise to support efforts to develop a COVID-19 vaccine. Internally, CSL has done its part by restricting international travel of its employees and postponing large events, while still continuing to provide its supply of critical medicine throughout the world. CSL is donating its proprietary adjuvant technology to the University of Queensland’s pre-clinical development program for a COVID-19 vaccine. CSL and Takeda Pharmaceuticals formed a plasma industry alliance, which also includes Biotest, BPL Group, LFB and Octapharma. The alliance will help accelerate development of a hyperimmune immunoglobulin medicine with the potential to treat individuals with serious complications from COVID-19.
Daimler
On Tuesday, March 24, Daimler subsidiary, Mercedes Benz (MBUSI), hosted a blood drive with LifeSouth Community Blood Center in its Vance, Alabama facility’s parking lot. Many hospitals are experiencing a low supply of blood because blood drives are being cancelled at an alarming rate due to the coronavirus. Mercedes Benz saw the crucial need for blood drives at this time and teamed up with LifeSouth, which brought three buses to the drive. The blood donated from the drive will go to DCH Regional Medical Center in Tuscaloosa and hospitals in central Alabama. The Mercedes Benz headquarters is also supporting its local community efforts in Atlanta. On March 18, three vehicles left the headquarters en route to the Salvation Army Metro Atlanta Red Shield Shelter in downtown Atlanta with 500 kits replete with donated healthcare supplies. These supplies, including face masks, gloves, wipes, toilet paper and hand sanitizer, will go to Salvation Army’s homeless shelter that urgently needs them to help protect its vulnerable community during the Coronavirus pandemic. Using 3D printers, MBUSI is making face masks and faceshield headbands to donate to DCH and UAB hospitals in Alabama. Mercedes-Benz Research and Development North America is using its industrial SLS 3D printer at its California facility, which normally makes car parts, to produce components for face masks. To date, MBUSI has donated over 324,000 surgical, sewn and N95 face masks to healthcare facilities and local non-profit organizations in Alabama. In total, MUBSIs donations of funds, goods and services are valued at $500,000 to support its community battling COVID-19.
Danone
Danone North America is working to support food banks and organizations working to increase access to foods through a $1.5 million donation. Danone’s U.S. partners can use these funds to supply food to vulnerable populations in its communities. Now more than ever, food insecure and low-income households that once relied on school meals are struggling to feed their families. Therefore, Danone North America, which produces dairy and plant-based dairy products, based out of White Plains, NY and Broomfield, CO, is making a monetary and food-based donation. $1.2 million in funds and $300,000 in product donations will go towards local organizations making food accessible in communities in which Danone operates. The funds will support 12 different organizations including New York-based City Harvest, Feeding Westchester, Colorado-based Community Food Share, We Don’t Waste and other organizations in CA, FL, NJ, OH, OR, PA, TX, UT, and VA.
DENSO
DENSO is donating approximately 2,000 N95 masks to support health care workers in Michigan and North Carolina in response to COVID-19 pandemic. DENSO’s headquarters in Southfield, Michigan is supplying Ascension Providence Hospital-Southfield with more than 1,600 respirators, and its manufacturing facility in Battle Creek is donating 300 to Bronson Battle Creek Hospital.
Diageo, Inc.
Diageo North America establishes the #TipsFromHome social media movement to support the hospitality industry negatively impacted by the coronavirus pandemic. Bars and restaurants across the country are experiencing hardships, which is why Diageo is creating this movement in order to help these industries in need. To kickstart the initiative, Diageo pledged $500,000 and its brands are donating an additional $500,000, bringing the total donation to $1 million. Diageo is creating a virtual platform that will allow the bar and restaurant community to engage with people online and accept tips through a selection of national and local charities. Some of the online content will include cocktail recipe demos by local bartenders and a weekly Jimmy Kimmel Live feature on ABC called ‘Cocktails De La Casa’.
DSM North America
DSM North America sites across the country are significantly contributing to COVID-19 relief efforts. DSM Protective Materials and DSM NA donated $20,000 to collaborate with its customer Hardwire to produce thousands of face shields to donate to healthcare workers in New York. A series of 1,000 N95 and surgical masks were donated to each of three hospitals in New Jersey including, the Rahway Hospital, Valley Hospital and Overlook Hospital. Face masks were also donated to the Veterans Affairs nursing homes in Melo Park, NJ. The DSM facility in Kingstree, South Carolina donated $10,000 and personal protective equipment (PPE) to the Williams County Hospital. DSM’s Greenville, North Carolina facility donated $5,000 to a local food bank, which equated to 25,000 meals, and an additional $5,000 was raised for the food bank by an employee fundraiser initiative. The site also donated a pallet of PPE to the Pitt Country Emergency Response Unit and the Greenville Fire and Rescue. In Winchester, Kentucky, the site donated hand sanitizer and wipes to the Occupational Health Clinic and made a monetary donation to the local food bank. The Wilmington, Massachusetts site transformed its production to produce 5,500 gallons of hand sanitizer to supply to the States of Massachusetts and Rhode Island. The Mulgrave NS provided ethanol to a local distillery, and the Columbia, Maryland site donated equipment to Seeding Labs, both of which are producing hand sanitizer.The additive Manufacturing group in Elgin Ill is creating a platform to share expertise, applications and knowledge to help others with coronavirus relief efforts. The Evansville, Indiana site provided General Motors with material to use in its collaboration with Ventec to produce ventilators.DSM has also delivered 15,000 Immunity Stix to its North American manufacturing and R&D sites and 2,500 were donated to nurses and police departments in New Jersey.
Ericsson
In response to the White House’s call to action to the country’s artificial intelligence experts to develop new data mining techniques to help collect and categorize the high-priority scientific questions related to the COVID-19 pandemic, Ericsson has to decided to participate in the challenge. Ericsson is partnering with the National Institutes of Health, Georgetown University and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy to conduct this data analysis research. Ericsson is empowering its employees, from project managers to software engineers, to create ten virtual teams to work on the ten different open tasks in this challenge ranging from understanding COVID-19 risk factors to finding treatment protocols. Ericsson is offering this challenge on a volunteer basis to its employees who can use their skill set and leverage the company’s platform as a way to contribute to the global health crisis.
FUJIFILM Holdings America
FUJIFILM Dimatix, a FUJIFILM subsidiary based in Santa Clara, CA, has donated more than 5,000 gloves and 1,000 face masks to local hospitals to address the shortage of personal protective equipment needed by health professionals who are at the front lines of treating patients.
GE Appliances, a Haier Company
GE Appliances is working with the local communities in which it operates to help healthcare professionals, first responders and other essential workers during the COVID-19 outbreak. GE established the GEA4Heroes initiative to donate thousands of appliances to healthcare workers, emergency personnel working on the frontlines and to organizations such as police stations and hospitals. GE is partnering with United Way Worldwide to distribute these appliances on a need-based basis. GE has also donated over 120,000 masks and 100,000 gloves to healthcare facilities and government agencies in Kentucky, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina and Tennessee where its manufacturing facilities are located. GE is utilizing its 3D printers to manufacture face shields, and donate them to healthcare institutions through the University of Louisville. Engineers at GE created intubation shields that are being donated to medical professionals who are at an increased risk of contracting the coronavirus when they intubate patients. GE has also donated $100,000 to the One Louisville Fund, which is dispersing resources to individuals and local nonprofits financially impacted by the pandemic. Lastly, GE made a $3,000 donation to WaterStep, which is supplying bleach-making kits to help sanitize healthcare facilities and community organizations.
GlaxoSmithKline
Global healthcare company GSK is partnering with CEPI to develop a vaccine for COVID-19. In this collaboration, GSK will be making its established pandemic vaccine adjuvant platform technology readily accessible in order to support effective vaccine developments. GSK’s adjuvant systems were created to enhance immune response in conjunction with the vaccine in order to create longer lasting immunity against viruses and infections. GSK invests $250 million in a partnership with San Francisco-based Vir Biotechnology Inc. focused on developing an antibody treatment to treat the novel coronavirus. GSK is partnering with another global vaccine producer, Sanofi, to expedite the process of creating a vaccine to treat COVID-19. Sanofi’s experimental vaccine was lacking an adjuvant to increase the effectiveness of one of the main components of the vaccine, which GSK has the ability to manufacture. GSK produced these adjuvants during the H1N1 flu outbreak in 2009. Phase one trials of the vaccine are set to begin in the second half of this year.
Grifols
Grifols announced it is entering a collaboration with Federal public health agencies including the U.S. Biomedical Advanced Research Development Authority (BARDA), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and others to determine if a hyperimmune globulin therapy can treat COVID-19. Grifols is collecting plasma from recovered COVID-19 patients and processing the plasma into a hyperimmune globulin, which will then be used to support clinical trials determining if this type of therapy is successful in treating the COVID-19 virus. The Grifols facility in Clayton, North Carolina is facilitating these preclinical and clinical studies. The FDA is working to eradicate any unnecessary regulatory hurdles that may slow down the process without reducing safety regulations. Additionally, Grifols is building a new facility at its center in Clayton that will carryout convalescent plasma transfusion therapy by providing viral inactivation technology to ensure inactivated plasma units for treatment usage. This collaboration will provide an opportunity to test if this therapy is a feasible solution for treating COVID-19, and if proven effective, the therapy can also be used to treat future novel emerging viruses. Grifols is currently working to collect plasma from donors in cities experiencing the biggest COVID-19 outbreaks including Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, San Antonio, San Diego and Seattle. The company is urging people who’ve made a complete recovery from COVID-19 to visit their site so trained Grifols specialists can screen them and direct potential donors to their local Grifols plasma donor center.
Hitachi
Hitachi subsidiary, Sullair, donates approximately 1,300 N95 respirators to Franciscan Health Michigan City hospital in Indiana. Sullair’s donation is helping to ensure that medical professionals who are working on the frontline are protected and safe when treating highly contagious patients. Another Hitachi subsidiary, JR Automation, is partnering with General Motors to produce an entire face mask production assembly line, which has the capacity to produce 50,000 masks per day. JR Automation successfully constructed the assembly line for GM in six days, allowing General Motors to produce face masks beginning on March 27. Hitachi Automotive in Kentucky is working with other regional companies to produce 500 face masks per day to provide to local hospitals. Hitachi assembles the components at its Harrodsburg, KY facility that are contributed by Lexmark International, Tempur-Pedic and Big Ass Solution. The recipients are University of Louisville Medicine, University of Kentucky Medical, St. Joseph’s, Morehead Hospital, and Frankfort Cancer Center.
H&M Hennes & Mauritz, L.P.
H&M is using its internal resources to help healthcare workers and vulnerable communities and contribute to slowing the spread of the virus. Since March 22, H&M has shifted its supply chains. Instead of manufacturing clothing, H&M’s suppliers are now producing large quantities of personal protective gear that H&M is donating to hospitals and healthcare workers in need. H&M donated more than 70,000 units of its products including bedding, sheets, adult and kid’s clothes to various organizations such as Children’s Defense Fund, The Los Angeles LGBT Center, GLAM4GOOD and the Nashville Rescue Mission. Additionally H&M USA is collaborating with Givz to provide financial support to front line workers. It will be donating $10 for every $60 spent on H&M online. The non-profit H&M Foundation has also donated $500,000 to the World Health Organization to help prevent the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Honda North America
Honda is supporting healthcare providers through donations from its inventory throughout the United States, including N-95 masks and other personal protective equipment. The company is using its 3-D printers to manufacture visors to be used as protective face shields for medical professionals. To address food insecurity issues created as a result of the pandemic, Honda is donating $1 million to support communities across North America to provide those in need with access to food. In addition to the $1 million pledge to address food shortages and insecurity, Honda is implementing a Special Matching Gift Program, which enables associates to donate money to food programs in their local communities, matching up to $1,000 for each individual gift. Honda is collaborating with Dynaflo to help boost its production of diaphragm compressors, which are a key component of portable ventilators being used by hospitals to help patients battling COVID-19. Dynaflo was producing around 300 per month, but with the help of Honda, it’s intending to produce 10,000 compressors per month through the end of August. Honda has adapted a 6,000 sq. ft. area of its technical development facility in Marysville, Ohio, into a space for employees to assemble the urgently needed compressors. Honda is using its workers’ experience in parts tracking, build timing, quality checks and lot control to efficiently increase compressor production while maintaining social distancing protocols.
Horizon Therapeutics
Horizon Therapeutics announced its commitment to donate $1.5 million to COVID-19 response efforts in Illinois and in other impacted communities in which the company operates. Part of the donation will go towards the Illinois COVID-19 Response Fund, which aids individuals who need access to critical services including emergency food and basic supplies, interim housing and shelter and primary health care services. The other part of the donation will go towards the Illinois Biotechnology Innovation Organization (iBIO) Institute’s COVID-19 Response Fund. iBIO’s response fund will work in tandem with the Illinois Manufacturers Association and with State, corporate, private and philanthropic donations, to make direct purchases of protective medical products to support Illinois based healthcare workers and first responders. In addition to Horizon’s Illinois-based donation, it’s also providing financial assistance to ALONE Ireland, the Lake County Crisis Relief Fund, the Chicago Community COVID-19 Response Fund, the Silicon Valley Community Foundation COVID-19 Coronavirus Regional Response Fund and the Greater Washington Community Foundation COVID-19 Emergency Response Fund. Horizon is urging other businesses to join in its effort to offer support and stability around the world.
Huhtamaki
Huhtamaki facilities around the United States are contributing to COVID-19 aid in the surrounding local communities. In Coleman, Michigan Huhtamaki is donating PET sheets to a local ice maker that shifted its production to manufacture plastic face shields. Huhtamaki employees in Coleman are also collecting and donating old t-shirts to residents that can make their own masks from the fabric. The Huhtamaki facility in Hopkinsville, Kentucky is donating 13,000 containers to local schools that need receptacles to distribute grab-and-go meals to students in need. The center in Fulton, New York also donated 400 cups and covers to local districts for packaging school lunches and donated N95 masks to Oswego Health. Employees at Huhtamaki’s Waterville, Maine facility donated N95 masks to the Waterville Fire Department, school lunch trays to the Alfond Youth Center Boys Clubs, which provides food to school lunch programs seven days a week, and dinner plates to Redington Fairview Hospital. The Hammond, Indiana location donated N95 masks to local community hospitals and made a $2,500 donation to the Northwest Indiana Food Bank. In Marion, Indiana, the Huhtamaki plant is donating $4,000, plates and bowls to the St. Martin Community Center, which is providing meals to over 200 residents every day. An additional $2,500 donation was given to Grant County EA to help purchase PPE required by emergency services, and a donation containing gloves, masks and Tyvek suits was given to the Mill Township Fire Department in Indiana. Lastly, in De Soto Kansas, the Huhtamaki facility donated to three local food pantries, employees helped deliver meals with the De Soto Food Pantry and started a relief fund in De Soto to help local residents who have critical needs beyond food.
Hyundai
Hyundai Motor America is supporting COVID-19 relief efforts by providing drive-thru testing to 22 hospitals across the United States with $4 million in grants through its Hyundai Hope On Wheels program. These grants are aimed at eliminating the spread of the virus through increased access to testing nationwide. Hyundai Hope On Wheels is a non-profit organization launched in 1998 to help find a cure for childhood cancer. In addition to expanding access to testing, Hyundai is donating 65,000 COVID-19 RT-PCR tests developed by Seegene, a South Korea-based global leader in multiplex molecular diagnostics. Seegene's test can simultaneously detect three different genes of the COVID-19 virus. Hyundai is the only automaker providing these much needed tests to hospitals, especially in inundated cities such as New Orleans, Chicago and Detroit.
IKEA North America Services, LLC
IKEA is donating supplies and products totaling $1.6 million to support relief efforts across the United States. Ikea is donating a combined total of $1 million worth of product to the American Red Cross, Departments of Health in U.S. communities most severely impacted by the pandemic identified by the CDC and local nonprofits in the communities in which IKEA operates. IKEA has donated blankets, bedding, storage solutions and other needed supplies for blood drives, temporary hospitals and shelters. And to help with longer-term needs, IKEA allocated $600,000 to work with its stores and distribution channels to support local efforts helping with homelessness and isolation issues. To ensure the safety and wellbeing of its workforce, IKEA implemented strict safety measures to include contactless deliveries, social distancing officers, increased surface cleaning and temperature checks while its ecommerce business is operating. Its fulfillment co-workers and high-risk employees can access an additional 80 hours of emergency sick pay and flexible work arrangements to care for themselves and/or their family members who may have been exposed to COVID-19. IKEA has also offered pay for up to 10 shifts for co-workers that are facing child-care issues due to school closures. IKEA will provide free meals every day for every shift to all fulfillment co-workers on site using any available local caterers.
John Hancock
John Hancock donates $1 million to the Boston Resiliency Fund, which will go towards providing food and medicine to children in need during the pandemic crisis and is urging other corporations to do the same. The Boston Relief Fund was created to manage Boston’s fundraising and philanthropy efforts to support the most vulnerable communities impacted by the virus. Learn more about John Hancock’s contributions and the resiliency fund.
Kering
Kering is partnering with the CDC Foundation to provide personal protective equipment (PPE) and other vital healthcare supplies to assist medical workers across the country. Kering also announced a $1 million donation to the CDC Foundation to support health care workers in highly impacted states including New York, New Jersey, California and Florida. Kering specifically chose this foundation because of the Emergency Response Fund’s ability to distribute resources to fulfill priority needs where appropriated funds are not available or cannot be deployed fast enough. Kering is also contributing to A Common Thread, the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund for COVID-19 Relief, which is intended to raise awareness and funds for those in the American fashion industry whose businesses are negatively impacted by the pandemic. Kering is also supporting Kerby Jean-Raymond’s organization, Your Friends in New York Want to Help, which helps distressed minority and female-owned businesses and collects masks and gloves for medical professionals.
Lehigh Hanson
In order to help protect healthcare and medical professionals, multiple Lehigh Hanson plants have donated personal protective equipment (PPE). Lehigh Hanson’s Lehigh Cement Company facility in Glens Falls, NY also donated several cases of N95 respirators due to the current critical need for respirators across the country.
L'Oreal USA, Inc.
L'Oreal donated a decontamination system to the fire department in Clark, New Jersey to help the first responders sanitize their equipment, PPE and vehicles during the coronavirus outbreak. The Clark fire chief wanted to purchase three sets of the decontamination equipment for the Fire Department, Volunteer Emergency service and Emergency Management, and for the Police Department and the Department of Public Works. L'Oreal covered the cost of all three decontamination systems to ensure that these essential front line workers are safe and best equip to be serving the people of New Jersey.
LVMH
Beginning on March 16, the luxury goods conglomerate announced it was using its perfume production facilities for Christian Dior, Guerlain and Givenchy to manufacture hand sanitizer and provide the supply for free. LVMH decided to tackle the issue of the widespread shortage of hand sanitizer by producing its own since the infrastructure was in place in these facilities to produce the hydroalcoholic gel. LVMH subsidiary, Sephora, increases its committment to fight domestic violence through its Sephora Cares Program. It's reported that during this period of quarantine, domestic violence incident reports have increased by up to 40 percent in certain areas across the country.
Mazda
The Mazda Foundation (USA), Inc. has approved a $70,000 donation for Second Harvest Food Bank of Orange County, California, which is also where Mazda North America’s U.S. headquarters are located. The donations will purchase two truckloads containing 60,000 pounds of shelf-stable food items. The Mazda Foundation has also made a $44,000 donation to Food Bank of North Alabama, which is located near Mazda's newly constructed Huntsville, Alabama factory. The food banks are working to serve food-insecure families who are affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Medtronic
Medtronic, a major supplier of ventilators and other respiratory equipment, pledges to increase production of this crucial equipment to keep up with the increased need across the United States and around the world. Most recently, the company has begun publicly sharing the design specifications for its Puritan Bennett 560 ventilator, allowing other companies to explore producing the product in an effort to increase global production of ventilators.
Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG)
MUFG announces it is donating $3 million to support local communities that are adversely affected by COVID-19. Out of the $3 million pledge, $1.4 million will go towards supporting small businesses located in low and moderate-income communities in the United States. Five-hundred thousand dollars will go towards U.S.-based social programs including regional food banks that serve low-income populations, and $1 million will be put towards existing small business grants in the United States.
National Grid
National Grid is directing $500,000 to help those whose health and financial situation has been negatively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. These funds are providing immediate relief to families and individuals in need and help local organizations to better assist their communities in Massachusetts, New York and Rhode Island. Some of these organizations and funds that National Grid is supporting include The United Way Rhode Island Crisis Fund, The Rhode Island Good Neighbor Energy Fund, Boston Resiliency Fund, The United Way of Central MA ‘We Care Fund’, Island Harvest and The United Way in New York. To further help its employees and customers, National Grid is requiring strict protocols for its workforce aiding customers, offering expertise of its Consumer Advocates who provide crisis intervention support for customers in need, suspending collections-related activities, and contributing a portion of the fund to National Grid customers who are facing financial challenges.
Nestle
During these challenging times, Nestle continues to offer employee benefits and support. For example, Nestle pledges to continue paying both part-time and salaried employees and those who were working in its retail operations that have been temporarily closed to reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus. It's offering eligible frontline employees an additional 12 percent of their earnings for at least 12 weeks. Its immediately expanding health benefits, providing up to 14 days of additional time off and continuing to hire and train thousands of employees. The company is enforcing strict guidelines in its facilities such as actively encouraging employees who are sick to stay home and ensuring social distancing is possible at times in all locations. Nestle is also working alongside doctors to develop new COVID-19 medical nutrition and supplement treatment protocols. Its donating food and water to food banks and food delivery services providing for those in need. Nestle announced it is partnering with the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC). The partnership will focus on donating food, nutrition products and bottled water to vulnerable communities and matching 1:1 donations to the Red Cross by its employees. Nestle USA has donated $685,000 to various food banks and food security programs throughout the country. Nestle subsidiary, Nestle in the Market, has donated $1 million to the American Red Cross to fund logistical support, food, medical nutrition supplies, blood drives and bottled water. Gerber donated $350,000 in March towards COVID-19 relief to nonprofit partners and is expecting its donations to exceed that in April. Nestlé Purina PetCare Company donated 2,400 N95 masks and 4,000 pairs of gloves to local first responders and many significant monetary donations to Purina's local relief funds and shelter partners across the country. NWNA is providing bottled water to crisis relief organizations using donations for COVID-19 relief and provided homebound residents in Flint, Michigan with over 50,000 bottles of water.
Nissan
In response to the COVID-19 healthcare crisis, Nissans’ plants in Tennessee have suspended vehicle production and are now 3-D printing headbands and face shields to donate to healthcare workers. Production has already started at its Smyrna facility and the Decherd Powertrain Assembly plant in Tennessee. The company is anticipating production of more than 3,000 face shields by the beginning of April, given that it has the capacity to produce approximately 1,000 per week.
North American Subaru, Inc.
Subaru of Indiana Automotive has donated over 400 N95 masks and 13 sets of goggles to the IU Health Arnett Hospital Emergency Room in Lafayette, Indiana. Subaru of Indiana Automotive also donated 75 Tyvek suits and 320 packages of cleaning wipes to the Lafayette Professional Firefighters Local 472. Additionally, Subaru of America donated 120 N95 masks from its training centers to Virtua Health in New Jersey and other local hospitals. Subaru of America, Inc. in conjunction with its two regional distributors, Subaru of New England and Subaru Distributors Corp., is making a donation of 50 million meals to Feeding America. Feeding America, the largest U.S. hunger-relief organization, will be distributing the meals throughout the country to families affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Subaru's donation is a part of the Subaru Loves to Help initiative, which is dedicated to supporting organizations that help community members in need.
Novartis
Leading global medicines company, Novartis, has announced a broad range of initiatives to respond to COVID-19 Pandemic. Efforts include creating a $20 million global fund to support impacted communities and entering into new collaborative research efforts such as the COVID-19 Therapeutics Accelerator, coordinated by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Wellcome, and Mastercard, as well as a COVID-19 directed partnership organized by the Innovative Medicines Initiative. The company has also made available a set of compounds from its libraries that it considers suitable for in vitro antiviral testing and is evaluating its existing products to see if any could be repurposed beyond their approved indications. Novartis intends to donate up to 130 million doses of generic hydroxychloroquine by the end of May to support the pandemic response. Hydroxychloroquine is currently under evaluation in clinical trials for the treatment of COVID-19. Novartis is supporting ongoing clinical trial efforts, and will evaluate the need for additional clinical trials. The company is also exploring further scaling of capacity to increase supply and is committed to working with manufacturers around the world to meet global demand.
Novo Nordisk
Novo Nordisk is committed to helping those with chronic conditions like diabetes, obesity and hemophilia that are at a heightened risk during the COVID-19 pandemic. The company has a steady supply of medication including insulin and will work to ensure that orders will be fulfilled and pharmacies will remained stocked during the pandemic. This pandemic is also causing economic hardships, which is why Novo Nordisk is offering a free 90-day insulin supply to provide support. Novocare.com is providing information on the company’s eligibility specifications, its lower-cost cash programs, free medicines assistance and an option for those in immediate need of insulin. Novo Nordisk announced a $500,000 contribution to national and local relief organizations including Direct Relief, AmeriCares, the NYC Emergency COVID-19 Relief Fund, the New Jersey Pandemic Relief Fund and the Philadelphia COVID-19 Relief Fund. It’s also supporting emergency assistance requests from its patient and advocacy organizations and local communities to address basic health needs of individuals and families. To help support small businesses, Novo has temporarily suspended its standard contractual payment terms and will be paying submitted invoices immediately for approximately 500 small and diverse companies working with Novo Nordisk across the United States.
Panasonic
Panasonic’s North American Headquarters in Newark, NJ, and its business units across the United States have proactively responded to the COVID-19 pandemic. Panasonic has donated a total of $150,000 to varied charities that are addressing the critical food insecurity needs of residents in Newark, NJ. The donations inlcude $100K to United Way’s COVID-19 Response Fund ($50K from Panasonic Corporation and $50K from Panasonic Foundation), $25K to Newark Public Schools and a 25k donation to the Community Foodbank of New Jersey.
The Panasonic team at the Gigafactory in Reno, Nevada is donating 17,000 protective masks to hospitals in the region. And, a Panasonic field engineer from the company’s avionics unit fabricated 70 facial masks in one week using a home 3D printer. The masks were donated to local health care providers.
Panasonic’s industrial devices division collobarated with Philips Healthcare to supply backup batteries for use in their greatly expanded production of ventilators. At University Hospital Newark, Panasonic’s consumer division is donating 400 units of KX-HN4001W (base unit baby monitor camera) and 150 units of an optional baby monitor camera system (KX-HNC301W) to University Hospital in Newark. The baby monitors will be used by hospital staff to eliminate some of the face-to-face conversations and minimize the contact caregivers have with infected patients.
Pernod Ricard
In order to help combat COVID-19, Pernod Ricard is producing and donating hand sanitizer. Pernod Ricard’s Arkansas manufacturing plant and its distilleries in Kentucky, West Virginia and Texas are beginning production of hand sanitizer to help resupply a shortage of stock and help fight the pandemic on a local level. The company is working closely with the Federal government to remove any regulatory hurdles and determine distribution based on where the biggest needs are across the United States. On April 7, Pernod Ricard delivered 523 gallons of sanitizer, or 2,640 bottles to the LCMC Health Distribution Center in New Orleans. It also shipped another 4,840 gallons of hand sanitizer to the New York Police Department, and will continue weekly shipments to the NYPD indefinitely. The company now has the capacity at its U.S. facilities to produce 13,400 gallons of hand sanitizer per week. Its brand, Jameson, donated $500,000 to the United States Bartenders Guild and matched another $100,000 in consumer contributions to help keep unemployed individuals in the industry afloat during these financially challenging times.
Philips
Philips has come to an agreement with the U.S. Government to significantly increase the production of ventilators. Philips and the U.S. Government will collaborate to speed up access to critical materials and components, and accelerate logistics and regulatory approvals, which will drastically increase the efficiency of production. In the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Philips supplied U.S. hospitals with thousands of ventilators; now, Philips is anticipating to double its production by May 2020 and increase that by four times by the third quarter of 2020. The company is planning to equitably distribute the approximate 43,000 units to the areas of the U.S. that need the ventilators the most. Philips is using WHO and Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center data to fairly determine where this vital medical equipment is needed in hospitals throughout the country.
On April 14, Philips announced another partnership that will greatly increase its production capability of ventilators. Philips is joining forces with Flex to focus on the assembly of Philips Trilogy hospital ventilators at Philip’s facility in western Pennsylvania. At its manufacturing site in California, Philips is partnering with Jabil to boost production of the Philips Respironics V60 hospital ventilator. These hospital ventilators are not usually produced at this rate; in January, Philips was producing 500 units per week. Now, Philips has honed in on its expertise, manufacturing capabilities, efficient workforce and strong network of partners, to enable production to create 4,000 ventilators per week.
Roche
On March 13, Roche created the first commercial test for SARS-CoV-2, allowing expedited testing to meet time-sensitive medical needs during the coronavirus pandemic. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved it and issued an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for the test. This gives hospitals and labs the opportunity to run the test on Roche’s automated systems, which are available across the country and around the world. This high volume testing is designed to allow many people to get tested, helping to stop any further spread of the virus as soon as possible. Roche announced its development of a new serology test that is able to detect COVID-19 antibodies. Antibody testing is crucial because it helps identify people who have been infected by coronavirus and asymptomatic. This test can also support priority screening of vulnerable groups including healthcare professionals, food supply workers and delivery workers who may have already developed a level of immunity that would allow them to go back to work. Testing will help understand the immunity levels of COVID-19. On May 3, the FDA cleared Roche's antibody test for emergency use, and Roche says its proven the test is 100 percent accurate at detecting COVID-19 antibodies in the blood, and 99.8 percent accurate at ruling out the presence of those antibodies.
Samsung
In addition to supporting its workforce, Samsung is donating $4.3 million to communities where its U.S. employees live and work to help with COVID-19 relief efforts. To support the regions where the majority of its workforce resides, Samsung is donating $1 million to each of these four areas: New Jersey, California, North Texas and Central Texas. In New Jersey, Samsung is contributing to the New Jersey Pandemic Relief fund working to raise funds and resources for community members most adversely impacted by COVID-19. In California, Samsung donated to Silicon Valley Strong, MedShare and Second Harvest of Silicon Valley, which provides financial relief to small businesses and local organizations in need, sources and delivers critical medical supplies to local hospitals, and feeds food insecure families and senior citizens respectively. And in Texas, Sumsung donated to United Way of Metropolitan Dallas to support education, income and health outcomes and to All Together ATX, which is a community-run charity fund helping people in Austin to meet basic needs including childcare, medical needs, and food supply. Since the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak in the United States, Samsung has supplied healthcare workers in New York and New Jersey with Samsung devices and technology to aid with treating patients in local hospitals. To assist with virtual learning, Samsung has delivered approximately $3 million in technology and supplies to local schools nationwide through its Solve for Tomorrow program. Samsung continues to support its customers by offering continual customer care on its website and extending manufacturer warranties for those affected by the virus.
Sanofi
Sanofi, which has previously developed a SARS vaccine, is working to use this as a springboard to develop a vaccine for the novel coronavirus utilizing similar medical technology and innovation. Knowledge from the past vaccine could lead to a faster creation of a vaccine for this virus. Sanofi is using its recombinant DNA platform, which produces an identical DNA match of the proteins found in the coronavirus. This DNA can then be used to mass produce coronavirus antigen with the hopes of creating an immunity protection system. Sanofi is partnering with another global vaccine producer, GlaxoKlineSmith (GSK), to expedite the process of creating a vaccine to treat COVID-19. Sanofi’s experimental vaccine was lacking an adjuvant to increase the effectiveness of one of the main components of the vaccine. GSK has the ability to manufacture these adjuvants as it developed them during the H1N1 flu outbreak in 2009. Phase one trials of the vaccine are set to begin in the second half of this year.
SAP
SAP is opening up four of its technology platforms to support the relief response to the COVID-19 outbreak. For example, one of those platforms, SAP Qualtrics, innovated a technological solution to help medical and government organizations that are facing an overwhelming amount of phone calls to create automatic reports to identify gaps or patterns in the inquiries. This technology was made free and openly available to federal, state and local governments and health organizations.
Siemens
Siemens is dedicated to helping the nation combat the pandemic by supporting healthcare services and the country’s critical infrastructure. Its manufacturing professionals, technicians and field service teams are working to keep factories operating. Employees are helping maintain operations at hospitals, power plants, government facilities, military sites and data centers and support city services including transportation, water and waste, and national security emergency response systems. All Siemens workers are following the proper protective protocols to keep themselves and others safe while continuing to work. Siemens is also a part of the effort to expand hospital spaces by providing equipment and tools ranging from portable X-ray and ultrasound systems, to cloud-based platforms and remote monitoring to optimize the converted spaces. Additionally, Siemens Healthineers is working on a molecular test to detect COVID-19 in patients and the development of new artificial intelligence algorithms to detect and evaluate similar atypical viral patterns. Siemens is partnering with Haugland Energy Group LLC to support the creation of a makeshift hospital at the Westchester County Center in White Plains, New York. The companies are providing critical supplies and expertise to run a 110-bed temporary facility with the power distribution and building technologies necessary to treat COVID-19 patients and to protect hospital workers. Siemens supplied crucial power infrastructure technologies including panelboards, custom-made switchboards, circuit breakers, load centers and automatic transfer switches. Most components were custom-built and delivered within days from Siemens’ U.S. manufacturing sites in Grand Prairie, Texas, Spartanburg, South Carolina, and Hingham, Massachusetts.
Smithfield
Smithfield announces a donation of 10 million pounds of high-quality protein, valued at $30 million. The donation, which is the largest in company history, is equivalent to 40 million servings of meat and will be donated to food banks across the United States. Smithfield is dedicated to helping food banks meet the demand and serve families in need during these food shortages caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. This donation follows the launch of Smithfield’s ‘Good Food Challenge’, which was established to address food insecurity and raise support for Feeding America. Smithfield encourages the public to contribute to its network of food banks nationwide, which helps feed families in need during this challenging time.
Sodexo
Sodexo is ensuring that students across the United States who depend on school-provided meals or reside in food insecure households do not go hungry as school districts close due to the coronavirus. In West Columbia, South Carolina, Sodexo is teaming up with Lexington Two School District to serve free breakfast and lunch on the weekdays to children under the age of 18. Additionally, in Woonsocket, Rhode Island and Springfield, Massachusetts, Sodexo is working with those school districts to provide free ‘grab and go’ meals to students during the school closures.
Softbank Group
Softbank announces it is donating 1.4 million N95 respirator masks to New York State. The masks are crucial for doctors and nurses who are treating patients throughout the state. It is critical that health care providers on the front lines of treating patients have the necessary protective equipment to tame the spread of the virus in New York, which is currently the national epicenter of the pandemic.
Solvay
Solvay is involved in a number of initiatives in the United States focused on fighting COVID-19. Solvay colleagues in Longview, Washington and Deer Park, Texas donated two tons of diluted hydrogen peroxide to companies around the United States to help produce hand sanitizer to support front line workers. Solvay’s facility in Vernon, Texas is efficiently producing thickening components used to help accelerate the production of hand sanitizers and other cleaning products. The Solvay plant in Baton Rouge, Louisiana provided the state of Louisiana with 250 gallons of a three percent solution of hydrogen peroxide to be used to produce 3,000 gallons of sanitizer. Solvay’s Snyder, TX facility donated Hundreds of gallons of hand sanitizer to a 911 Distribution Center for use by local first responders. Solvay facilities in Rock Hill, SC; Alpharetta, GA; and Snyder, TX, joined forces in response to a request from the White House for the NYC Emergency Management with donations of hundreds of
Tyvek suits and boot covers. Solvay produced 230 hospital aprons at its Santa Fe Springs, CA site and donated them to UCLA and USC medical centers. Solvay employees at the Willow Island, WV site donated food to the local school to help provide students with lunches while the Solvay facility is currently closed, and Solvay’s Princeton, NJ office donated 75 lunches to the Princeton Medical Center.
Solvay teamed up with Boeing by supplying them with medical-grade transparent film that Boeing is using to produce face shields. Solvay also partnered with Paragon, a medical-supplies development company, to make special shields for health care workers who perform intubation procedures, which is the most dangerous part of treating patients with coronavirus.
Sony Corporation of America
Sony Corp. created a $100 million coronavirus relief fund, which will support a plethora of communities. Sony’s CSR team is working to distribute the fund in ways that will have long-lasting and meaningful impacts. So far, Sony has announced the fund will go towards supporting health care workers, children and educators working from home and artists who have lost their jobs. Sony has also committed to donate $10 million to the World Health Organization’s COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund, UNICEF, Medicins Sans Frontieres and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Due to school closures, Sony is also working on ways to deploy its technology in a way that could be useful for educators who are teaching remotely.
Spotify
Spotify announces it will be matching up to $10 million in donations to organizations that are supporting struggling artists at this time. The coronavirus pandemic is hurting many artists financially, which is why Spotify set up this COVID-19 Music Relief project. Spotify has already donated to Nonprofits PRS Foundation, Help Musicians and MusiCares, and will continue to match donations made through the project's website. Spotify has also launched an in-app feature for artists to highlight a fundraising destination for their fans. Spotify will not take any portion of fan donations. Additionally, Spotify is offering programs from its creator tools, including extended free trials for audio recordings for educators and waiving fees on its podcast Listener Support feature. Spotify is also joining forces with other music platforms to contribute towards MusiCares’ relief fund, which is supporting musical artists whose work has been compromised by the pandemic crisis. So far, the fund has raised over $4 million.
Sumitomo
Through partnerships with its customers, Sumitomo and its subsidiary, Fyffes, have supported various charities in North America. Sumitomo is donating Fyffes bananas, pineapples and melons to these organizations that are providing food for families in need during the COVID-19 pandemic. Together with the City of Philadelphia and Philabundance, which is the largest hunger relief organization in that region, approximately 10,000 pounds of Fyffes bananas and pineapples are delivered each week to different food distribution sites. In addition, U.S. retailer Hy-Vee has delivered more than 86,000 melons and watermelons in a series of donations to food banks across seven states.
Tata Consultancy Services
The global IT organization’s strategic unit called TCS iON offers interactive virtual classroom services. In the wake of all of the grade school and college closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic, TCS announced it will give free access to the service to educational institutions across the United States. The virtual learning platform offers mobile and web access, allowing educators to engage with their students in real time by sharing assignments and tests with interactive features such as live polling, surveys and debates. The service also offers additional options including “live classroom”, which emulates a live classroom teaching session. TCS also created an event series to bring the together the tech industry to discuss the challenges and opportunities presented by COVID-19 and create a platform for collaborative action.
Takeda
Takeda is currently working to develop TAK-888, which is a plasma-based therapy that shows promise in treating COVID-19. Takeda is donating over $6.25 million to organizations throughout the United States that help individuals who are negatively impacted by the Coronavirus. Takeda is also donating $4 million to the American Red Cross to help maintain the supply of blood, which helps patients in need during this public health crisis. In addition, it will match employee donations to the American Red Cross up to a collective total of $500,000. In addition to these monetary donations, Takeda is also working with MassBio’s Life Sciences Emergency Supply Hub Coalition to donate critical equipment and supplies. Takeda and CSL Behring formed a plasma industry alliance, which also includes Biotest, BPL Group, LFB and Octapharma. The alliance will help accelerate development of a hyperimmune immunoglobulin medicine with the potential to treat individuals with serious complications from COVID-19.
TE Connectivity
246 employees at TE Connectivity’s plant in Middletown Pennsylvania have volunteered to develop and produce thousands of face shields using TE’s 3D printing technology. To date, they have produced 18,000 face shields that supply 58 hospitals across the United States. The innovative design that the volunteers developed includes light-weight, breathable and defogging features, which are beneficial to the healthcare workers treating coronavirus patients. The feedback received from healthcare workers on the frontlines is that these face shields are more functional than the shields that are typically dispensed at hospitals. TE Connectivity is also supporting Ford’s manufacturing of Powered Air Purifying Respirators (PAPRs), which protect frontline healthcare workers. Additionally, TE will double the charitable match it offers its U.S. employees to 200 percent when they donate to specific medical institutions near TE facilities nationwide.
Teva Pharmaceuticals
In its commitment to contribute to the treatment of COVID-19 at no cost, Teva has pledged to donate six million tablets of hydroxychloroquine sulfate to hospitals across the United states at no cost to buyers. There is an urgent need for hydroxychloroquine, which Teva manufactures to treat Malaria, Lupus Erythematosus and Rheumatoid Arthritis, in order to investigate its potential to treat the virus. The company is ramping up production of the tablets and anticipates having an additional 10 million dosses in the channel within 30 days. Teva is continuing to evaluate its expansive range of medicines to see if any ithers have potential to treat the virus during this time of crisis.
Thales USA, Inc.
To help support frontline healthcare professionals, Thales Group is providing its technical expertise to support telemedicine and fight cybercrime and is also supplying PPE equipment such as radiology detectors. Thales is working with hospitals by providing radiology solutions that produce high-quality X-ray images. Their mobile systems allow medical professionals to assess and monitor the status of patients with COVID-19, both in X-ray rooms and directly at the bedside. With telemedicine, doctors can remotely observe patients in self-isolation, and Thales provides these smart medical devices with secure links that allow for safe access. Thales is offering free access for its cyber secure teleworking capabilities and cybersecurity expertise and is giving additional information to medical institutions, social service units and charitable organizations.
Thales is supporting individual states and the unique challenges they face during this crisis. It's helping to ensure that U.S. citizens who are facing identification expirations are able to receive new forms of ID credentials. In Georgia, Thales worked with the Department of Driver Services to rollout an emergency plan to provide extended identification cards so that individuals could still access critical services. The plan included a 120-day extension for Georgians whose driver’s license or ID card was nearing expiration, allowing customer-facing services to remain closed. Thales is helping multiple states with their unemployment benefit dispersal by manufacturing payment cards that function similarly to debit cards, which will allow individuals to access unemployment benefits more efficiently.
T-Mobile
T-Mobile's network, which provides necessary connections between loved ones and essential services at this time is pledging to remain fully operational. In order to increase capacity, T-Mobile is working with Comcast, Dish and others to increase coverage by 58 percent. T-Mobile is also working to keep customers connected by removing smartphone data caps, adding more hotspot data, expanding data access for EmpowerED schools and making calls to severely impacted countries free. It’s Network Operations Centers are working around the clock 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to monitor its network performance, including emergency calls to 911 through its technician workforce’s rapid response.
Toyota
Toyota is working to assist those in need during the COVID-19 pandemic through its manufacturing expertise and through monetary donations. Toyota has donated masks, safety glasses, shoe covers, gloves and blankets to hospitals, emergency management teams and first responders nationwide. Toyota along with its affiliates across 13 states have donated $500,000 to the United Way to help supply those in need with food, water, childcare and other emergency relief supplies. In addition to this donation, Toyota has made several donations to local organizations and non-profits across 15 states. Toyota is currently 3-D printing face shields to distribute to hospitals in Texas, Indiana, Kentucky and Michigan. Toyota also has plans to partner with two other companies that produce ventilators and respirators to help boost their manufacturing efficiency and provide assistance to hospitals on organizing efficient drive-through COVID-19 testing sites. Toyota is offering its customers affected by COVID-19 with payment relief options including payment extensions and lease deferred payments.
During a pandemic, minority populations are at an increased risk, which presents social, economic and healthcare challenges. Therefore, Toyota Motor North America is collaborating with its nonprofit partners in the LGBTQ+ community to help individuals with their healthcare needs during this crisis. Over $275,000 of previously awarded funding is being reallocated to support these crucial needs. Toyota is also donating $25,000 to support life-saving healthcare services for AIDS/LifeCycle’s beneficiaries, the Los Angeles LGBT Center and the San Francisco AIDS Foundation. These critical funds are essential because its annual charity event, which raised nearly $17 million last year is cancelled this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants, including a Toyota team of volunteers, continue to fundraise for the cause.
Toyota is shifting its foundation’s focus to support food assistance and emergency relief efforts due to the COVID-19 crisis. The Toyota USA Foundation awarded $2.5 million to various nonprofits addressing food insecurity and online education programs in significantly impacted urban areas where Toyota operates. Toyota is also looking into ways it can help further children’s education this summer to engage the youth and assist parents. Thus far, Toyota has donated over $8 million and more than 500,000 face shields in the United States.
Transamerica
Transamerica’s Aegon Transamerica Foundation donated $500,000 to Direct Relief to support coronavirus relief efforts. Transamerica supports this organization because of its work with public health authorities, nonprofit organizations and businesses across the United States to provide healthcare professionals with PPE and other essential resources. Transamerica is dedicated to helping organizations who support and protect caregivers on the frontlines. Transamerica is also providing emergency support in the communities in which it operates, which includes contributions to the Maryland Food Bank and the Children's Hospital Colorado Foundation's Caregiver Emergency Relief Fund. In addition to these monetary contributions, Transamerica also started an initiative to support its retirement plan customers and help them navigate the CARES Act. As part of this initiative, Transamerica is taking five steps to give relief to its customers in need. It’s waiving all coronavirus-impacted withdrawal fees within retirement plans, it’s not charging any plan amendment fees needed to implement the new CARES Act provisions, and it created a team dedicated to helping customers change their long-term retirement savings to meet their short-term financial challenges related to the coronavirus. The company also published a detailed summary of the CARES Act to help retirement plan customers understand how the legislation impacts them and hosted 60-minute webinars educating its customers and third-party administrators on the effects of the CARES Act.
UCB
UCB is contributing its scientific expertise and resources to help those affected by COVID-19. This includes expanding its assistance programs to further help patients impacted by the pandemic. UCB split its response into three categories: aiding with research and treatment development, offering its expertise to boost local testing capacities, and supporting local communities through donations and providing direct support to its patients and partners. UCB is working alongside the Seattle Structural Genomics Center for Infectious Disease to identify crystal structures of COVID-19 proteins. The company’s research center in Bedford, Massachusetts donated safety goggles, gloves, disposable lab coats, protective gowns and strip PCR tubes to medical professionals and healthcare researchers in Massachusetts who are working to help COVID-19 patients and combat the pandemic. It’s expanding its Patient Assistance Program (PAP) to help patients impacted by COVID-19 afford UCB medicines. It’s speeding up the enrollment process for patients who may need access to medicines at no cost. Lastly, UCB is encouraging and supporting its employees who are healthcare professionals who want to volunteer their skillset to help with local needs.
Umicore
Umicore is helping to limit the spread of COVID-19 through its thermal imaging technology. Its infrared optical products are being used for early fever detection and help control the spread of the coronavirus. The purpose of screening for the virus through thermal imaging is to implement another safety measure to try to identify infected individuals who may not even be showing symptoms yet. Early detection is extremely important to control further widespread outbreaks from occurring. Umicore is looking into further use of its IR technology to more specifically identify early detection signals for the virus as more information is determined about the impacts of COVID-19 on the human body.
Unilever
Unilever United States announced its launch of the ‘United for America’ initiative to help support the country during this health crisis. To date, the initiative has pledged a $20 million food, product and service donation. Unilever is currently donating over $8 million of its food, soap, hygiene and home cleaning products to help those impacted by the pandemic. Unilever is partnering with Feeding America, which supports foodbanks across the country, to help distribute these food and cleaning products to Americans. An additional $12 million worth of products will be donated on May 21, which the initiative is designating as its National Day of Service. On this day, 14 of the company’s U.S. factories will be donating and delivering products to local community partners to provide to those most in need. Nationwide, Unilever employees are invited to volunteer at organizations that provide these products and services to those greatly impacted by the pandemic. Unilever is also using its entire marketing and advertising budget on May 21 towards promoting its nonprofit partners and charitable organizations that are partaking in the distribution of these donations. Lastly, Unilever is donating over 200,000 masks to local hospitals in New Jersey to help protect medical professionals who are courageously treating coronavirus patients.
Volkswagen
Volkswagen and its supplier for seating and interior fabrics, Faurecia, are collaborating to turn the fabric production facility into a facility that will mass produce personal protection equipment (PPE). Faurecia has the capacity to produce approximately 250,000 masks and 50,000 gowns per week. After the initial 75,000 products were produced, Volkswagen donated it to New York State’s COVID-19 response initiatives. The shipment is going to arrive early April and will supply regional hospitals in New York including the makeshift hospital at the Javits Center in Manhattan.
Volvo Group North America
Volvo Group North America, headquartered in Greensboro, North Carolina, is supporting the local community through monetary and critical supply donations. Volvo Group donated $40,000 to the Greensboro Relief Fund, which is assisting children and families affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The company donated an additional $20,000 to Out of the Garden Project working to support those experiencing food insecurity and $8,000 to Guilford Education Alliance to provide Peck Elementary School with laptops for virtual learning. The Volvo Group donated several thousand PPE items from its internal stock to the hospital network including safety glasses, gloves and masks. Due to the growing need for PPE, Volvo Group’s Technical Center in Greensboro began manufacturing face shields and ear guards for Cone Health in Greensboro. Employees converted existing technology on site to allow for PPE production using 3D printers and stereolithography (SLA) 3D systems. Other Volvo North America facilities are also producing and donating PPE including Volvo Group’s facility in Hagerstown, MD, Volvo Trucks in Dublin, VA, Mack Trucks in Macungie, PA, Volvo Construction Equipment in Shippensburg, PA, and Volvo Penta of the Americas in Chesapeake, VA and Germantown, WI. Currently, the tens of thousands of supplies produced at these locations are being donated to multiple hospitals, EMS providers, rehabilitation centers, nursing homes and pharmacies across the United States. Deliveries are increasing as prototype designs are reviewed by local healthcare professionals, based on specific needs identified by the medical facility.
Westfield
Westfield shopping centers in Los Angeles launched the social media movement called #WestfieldCares to put a spotlight on organizations working to help vulnerable communities during the COVID-19 pandemic. The program was created to increase awareness and raise donations for organizations helping the homeless, under-resourced and elderly communities. Westfield and its employees are posting on social media using the #WestfieldCares hashtag to highlight its local volunteer efforts and inspire others to do the same. Some of its volunteer efforts include partnering with the American Red Cross to support its LAUSD School Lunch Program, donating to various Los Angeles community-based organizations, offering its Century City location to be used by UCLA Health to conduct blood drives and partner with One Medical to administer COVID-19 testing, and donating food and medical supplies to rescue organizations in California. Westfield Fashion Square shopping centers are using their locations to host blood drives with the American Red Cross and teaming up with MEND Urgent Care, Councilman David Ryu, Quest Diagnostics, and The Sherman Oaks Chamber of Commerce to administer weekly drive-through COVID-19 testing.
Zurich
The 2020 Zurich Classic of New Orleans was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic; however, Zurich pledged to provide full financial support of more than $1.5 million to the Fore!Kids Foundation. Zurich’s donation matches last year’s direct tournament donations. The Fore!Kids Foundation to continue its support of the Louisiana Hospitality Foundation’s mission, which is crisis grants for hospitality workers. Additionally, Zurich created an insurance solution for its customer, Bauer Hockey so that it could produce PPE. Bauer decided to switch its production of hockey equipment to medical face shields to help protect healthcare professionals during the COVID-19 pandemic. Production is taking place in Blainville, Quebec, and Liverpool, New York, and the shields are being distributed to facilities in Canada and the United States. Zurich is also helping the food service distributer Sysco, which is using its trucks to transport food and other critical supplies during the pandemic. Zurich helped Sysco gain authorization of its trucks as "for hire" so they could work with grocers to transport food and supplies from warehouses to grocery stores and other essential retail outlets. Zurich was able to quickly assist with more than 50 truck filings in just one day. Once Sysco received the necessary approvals, it has been transporting food and other supplies to areas most affected by the pandemic across the country.