Leading with Purpose

In a video interview with Pharma Commerce, Jody Hatcher, CEO of Morris & Dickson and chair of HDA’s board of directors, outlines his vision for the future of the organization and the key priorities he hopes to drive during his tenure. He expresses a strong sense of privilege and responsibility in succeeding Kirk Kaminsky and looks forward to collaborating closely with Debbie Weitzman of Cardinal Health to strengthen connections across the pharmaceutical supply chain.

Hatcher emphasizes the often-overlooked value that distributors bring to the healthcare ecosystem. Representing more than 1,200 manufacturers and serving around 330,000 pharmacies and care providers, he describes distributors as being part of an "irreplaceable network" that plays a vital, behind-the-scenes role in ensuring the availability of medications and healthcare products across the country.

He outlines three main priorities for his leadership. First, he aims to enhance engagement within the distribution community—bringing together pharmacies, manufacturers, and distributors around their shared mission. Second, he highlights the critical importance of implementing the Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA) across the supply chain. With an extension recently granted, Hatcher underscores the need to meet the updated deadlines to maintain the reliability and integrity of the distribution network.

Lastly, he stresses the importance of storytelling—articulating the value and sophistication of the distribution sector to external audiences. He notes that while distributors are often discussed in various contexts, it's essential to clearly communicate their indispensable role in maintaining a secure and efficient healthcare supply chain.

Overall, Hatcher's vision centers on strengthening collaboration, ensuring compliance, and raising awareness of the distribution sector’s critical contributions.

Hatcher also comments on his day-to-day workflow at Morris & Dickson, including how it supports the efficiency and reliability of the company’s operations; steps that should be taken to ensure DSCSA compliance; types of implications that the potential 25% tariffs on pharmaceuticals can cause; and much more.

A transcript of his conversation with PC can be found below.

PC: How do you envision the future of the HDA, and what role do you hope to play in shaping its direction?

Hatcher: It's a great question, and first and foremost, it's a privilege to be able to sit in this chair. Obviously, Kirk Kaminsky from McKesson was here before, but I'm really eager to use my role as the chair of HDA and work alongside Debbie Weitzman over at Cardinal Health, to really connect the supply chain stakeholders and ultimately, elevate the distributor’s role in the market.

I think that too often, the distributors are not given the credit for the value and the service that we provide, both to our pharmacy customers and to our trade partners. We represent over 1,200 manufacturers throughout the distribution community, and about 330,000 pharmacies, providers and other sites of care—all of them depend on what we do. At the end of the day, I think we represent an irreplaceable network that others just simply can't replicate. I’m looking forward to it.

In terms of my tenure, when I took over in September as the chair, I'd laid out three priorities. First and foremost was really to engage the membership and the rest of the community associated with the distribution world. Engagement is the key here—being able to bring our trade partners together, bring our pharmacies together, bring our distribution partners together, all around the common purpose that we all serve. Secondly, we're really focused collectively around DSCSA implementation across all entities in the supply chain, and for us, given the dates that we have—and obviously the extension that was afforded into the marketplace—delivering on that timeline is just mission critical, and it's critical to the reliability of our distribution network.

Lastly, I think that being able to tell our story and talk about the value that we play in this marketplace [is key]. At the end of the day, we have been talked about in a lot of different ways, but the fact of the matter is, we provide a very sophisticated, critical, and hardened network that our pharmacies and trade partners rely upon.