The chairman and chief executive officer of Racine-based SC Johnson met with members of the Senate’s Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs committee on Wednesday to discuss efforts to combat Zika.
Fisk Johnson was one of five witnesses to speak at the committee’s roundtable on “preparing for and protecting the nation from Zika.”
The company has committed to providing up to $15 million in resources globally to help protect against mosquitoes and has already made several rounds of repellant donations.
SC Johnson has also increased it manufacturing capacity in response to the virus. Some OFF! Production lines began running 24/7 as the initial reports of problems with the virus emerged from Brazil. The company also began running lines supplying the U.S. market 24/7 in February and added a line to its largest factory in Wisconsin.
The company has produced 50 percent more OFF! than last year.
“I do want to publicly thank SC Johnson for the extraordinary generosity of their collaborations, both collaborations in terms of donations of product and resources, and also of expertise. We really appreciate the public-private partnerships that are establishing, formally and informally. This is a point for the American public where we really need to be working together. Everybody has a role to play,” said Rear Admiral Anne Schuchat, principal deputy director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and one of the other witnesses on the roundtable.
