International Health Partners (IHP) was the first charity set up in the UK to enable pharmaceutical and medical companies to donate their products safely and securely to benefit areas in desperate need.

Just a month after its formation in November 2004, the charity started supplying aid for the Indian Ocean Tsunami disaster – the first of many disasters it has helped since then.

It also provides pharmaceuticals and medical products to hospitals and clinics struggling to survive in areas such as The Gambia, Nicaragua, Kurdistan and Gaza.

3M was among the first companies to adopt the charity and over the past 11 years has donated many thousands of products, including Littmann® stethoscopes, surgical drapes, wound dressings, respirators, tapes and bandages.

The company’s donation of $50,000 will support the development of IHP’s online donation portal – EURMED – that was created by the charity and two leading medical NGOs to efficiently manage product donations from the European healthcare industry.

“Because medical products and pharmaceuticals are so highly regulated, there are often significant obstacles to overcome before donations are possible, let alone desirable,” said Rich Bee from IHP.

“The great thing about being able to channel donations through the EURMED portal is that it takes an inherently complicated process and makes it as simple as it can be.

“It takes care of all the regulatory and legal aspects involved. It streamlines the process and makes it so much easier for companies to provide donations that make a real difference in the lives of people in vulnerable communities around the world.

“EURMED Online has been in place since 2014 and the system is now in need of an upgrade. The 3M support is going to make a significant difference in making that possible.”

The company’s help is being specifically targeted at training new NGO partners and 3M supply chain contacts to use the EURMED donations portal as well as extending its warehousing network; managing and monitoring donations; and auditing and governance.

Rosalind Smith, Reputation Communications manager, coordinates the 3M product donations at Loughborough. She commented: “IHP does a tremendous amount of good in its work in the developing world and the EURMED online portal has proved to be a significant success in simplifying the system for donor companies like us.”

Michael Stroik, 3Mgives senior manager, added: “IHP is a great organisation and this donation could drive significant humanitarian impact globally. The EURMED portal enables 3M and other companies to donate valuable excess product instead of sending it to landfills – which results in an incredible environmental and human effect.”

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