The 340B Coalition announced Tuesday that its annual winter conference will be held in person Jan. 31 to Feb. 2, 2022, in San Diego. Its last, pre-pandemic in-person conference was Feb. 10-12, 2020, also in San Diego.
Apexus, the 340B prime vendor, said yesterday it is planning an in-person 340B University program in San Diego in conjunction with the upcoming 340B Coalition winter conference.
The coalition, an umbrella organization of 13 groups representing 340B providers, announced its decision to hold its next conference as a live event in Oct. 12 email messages to past attendees. The coalition’s winter and summer meetings each were drawing almost 2,000 attendees before COVID-19 struck. They are the biggest 340B-oriented events of the year in terms of attendance.
On Sept. 15, the coalition sent email messages to past attendees to provide feedback “on how comfortable you are attending an in-person conference within the next year and what safety protocols you would like to see implemented.”
Tuesday’s email said the upcoming conference will let attendees “meet and chat face to face with peers during stakeholder breakout sessions, at networking receptions, and in the exhibit hall. The safety of our attendees is paramount, and we will be following all applicable state and federal requirements for meeting safely in person.”
Neither the email nor the winter conference website mentions online attendance as an option.
The website’s event policies page says all “attendees and exhibitors must be vaccinated or present a negative COVID-19 test result within 72 hours of the first day registrants are attending the event. Self-attestation to verify vaccination status or negative test results will not be accepted.”
“The 340B Coalition will monitor the rate of COVID-19 transmissions as the event nears and may implement a mask mandate if it feels it is necessary,” the group said. “In the event an attendee, staff or otherwise, falls ill with COVID, the 340B Coalition adheres to local, state, and federal guidelines and will coordinate with the San Diego Public Health Authorities to ensure the proper steps are taken and protocols are followed for positive test results.”
