On Sunday, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that New York has formed a consortium with six other states — New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts —  to develop a regional supply chain for personal protective equipment, other medical equipment, and testing.

Regional supply chains, Cuomo said, will help realize better pricing, delivery, and reliability of equipment.

“We’re going to form a consortium with our seven Northeast partner states, which buy about $5 billion worth of equipment and supplies,” said Cuomo at his Sunday press briefing. “That will then increase our market power when we are buying and we will buy as a consortium, price as a consortium, for PPE equipment, ventilators, medical equipment, whatever we need to buy.”

While the states will continue to partner with the federal government, they will also work together to identify the entire region’s needs for these products, aggregate demand among the states, reduce costs and stabilize the supply chain.

The states will also coordinate policies regarding the inventory of personal protective equipment that each state should have to be prepared for a possible second wave of COVID-19. The states will also coordinate policies on what supplies local governments should have for their first responders, and if any requirements regarding personal protective equipment for the non-for-profit and private sector are needed.

The states will then seek to identify suppliers within the country, region, or state that can scale to meet the demand of the entire region over the next three months. The goal of this approach is to decrease the potential for disruptions in the supply chain for equipment, including sanitizer and ventilators, and testing, and promote regional economic development.

In addition, the states are discussing how to collectively explore emerging technologies to take advantage of the potential associated with alternative methods of production for existing products and innovation that would lead to more effective or less expensive alternatives. For example, 3D Printers may represent an attractive alternative to manufacturing certain personal protective equipment and medical products.

“When you put all those hospitals together, all that public-health capacity together, which will make us more competitive in the international marketplace. I believe it will save taxpayers money,” said Cuomo. “I also believe it will help us actually get the equipment because we have trouble still getting the equipment and just buying the equipment because these vendors on the other side are dealing with countries, they’re dealing with the federal government — why should they do business with one state when they can do business with an entire country? So this consortium I think will help us to get the equipment and get it at a better price.”

— Melissa Hale-Spencer