Walgreens Helps Provide 50 Million Lifesaving Vaccines in Collaboration With the United Nations Foundation

Walgreens Hopes to Provide 50 Million More Vaccines Through Get a Shot. Give a Shot. Campaign by 2023
Nov 22, 2019 10:05 AM ET

On Nov. 19, Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA) and the United Nations Foundation’s Shot@Life campaign announced that Walgreens Get a Shot. Give a Shot. program has helped provide 50 million lifesaving vaccines to children around the world since its inception in 2013. Walgreens also stated it would strive to provide an additional 50 million immunizations over the next five years.

One in five children around the world lacks access to the lifesaving vaccines that help keep children in the U.S. healthy. In fact, one child dies every 20 seconds from a disease that could be prevented with a vaccine.

Get a Shot. Give a Shot. Is now in its seventh year. For every immunization administered at Walgreens, the company donates the value of a vaccine to the UN Foundation. During the 2019-2020 period, the U.S. retailer will donate up to a maximum of $2.6 million. Funds from the program are donated to Shot@Life to help support measles and polio vaccination efforts in Afghanistan, Central African Republic, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, East Timor and Tanzania.

Dorothy Loy, Walgreens director of adherence strategy and clinical performance recently traveled to   Ethiopia where she witnessed the vaccination program in action.

“Get a Shot. Give a Shot. program benefits so many people,” said Loy. “Meeting them made the program feel real, and I was able to see first-hand the difference it’s making in their lives. I’m proud to work for a company that has a program like this because it shows that business can be a force for good.”

Walgreens Boots Alliance, which includes Walgreens, is committed to improving healthcare accessibility and affordability to people around the world. You can read more about WBA’s global Corporate Social Responsibility agenda here.