Henry Schein snares $53.4M PPE deal for Strategic National Stockpile
Henry Schein, with worldwide headquarters in Melville, has been pressing Washington to incorporate the offices of dentists and doctors in the COVID-19 vaccination effort. Credit: Barry Sloan
Henry Schein Inc. has won a $53.4 million contract to supply personal protective equipment and other COVID-19 products for the Strategic National Stockpile, the company announced Wednesday.
The Melville-based distributor of products to the offices of dentists and physicians will store and distribute 80,000 pallets of materiel through the contract with the Department of Health and Human Services.
The company did not disclose over what period the contract will run.
Shares of Henry Schein rose 0.8% to close Wednesday at $76.85, recovering ground after a 1.7% decline on Tuesday.
In a research note, Evercore ISI analyst Elizabeth Anderson said that the award extends Henry Schein's work with the U.S. government's COVID-19 supply chain task force.
The contract will add about 1.5% to the company's forecast annual medical sales growth, she said.
When the coronavirus began its rapid global spread in early 2020, U.S. health care providers faced a critical shortage of face masks and other protective gear.
Under the contract, Henry Schein will work with federal, state and local authorities "to provide additional resources and infrastructure needed to get health care products where they are needed most," Stanley M. Bergman, Henry Schein chairman and chief executive, said in a statement.
Henry Schein has been vocal in pressing Washington to incorporate the offices of dentists and doctors in the COVID-19 vaccination effort.
In April, Bergman submitted a letter to the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis saying dentists and physicians could help overcome "hesitancy" and provide vaccines in ZIP codes not covered by other delivery systems.
Separately, on Tuesday, Henry Schein, Long Island's largest public company by revenue, announced that its software arm had acquired an 80% ownership of Jarvis Analytics, a 4-year-old analytics company.
Financial terms for Dallas-based Jarvis, a provider of business analytics for dentist offices, were not disclosed.
Henry Schein, with worldwide sales of $10.1 billion in 2020, is a member of the Fortune 500.
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Ken Schachter covers corporate news, including technology and aerospace, and other business topics for Newsday. He has also worked at The Miami Herald and The Jerusalem Post.
