Pennsylvania has ended the regulatory barriers preventing the state’s more than 130 small craft distilleries from producing hand sanitizer, state Sens. Vincent Hughes (D-Philadelphia/Montgomery), and Tim Kearney (D-Delaware/Chester) and U.S. Reps. Brendan Boyle (D-PA) and Mary Gay Scanlon (D-PA) announced.
The lawmakers worked to remove U.S. Food and Drug Administration and U.S. Department of the Treasury regulatory restrictions preventing the transition from alcohol to hand sanitizer and worked to secure start-up capital for the conversion as well as ingredients and packaging.
The lawmakers also worked with Rob Cassell, a Philadelphia-based distillery owner and operator. Cassell said the first hand sanitizer sample could be available as early as this week.
“This COVID-19 crisis demands the quick disabling of barriers at all governmental levels that currently stand in the way of assisting the American people,” Boyle said. “By acting quickly and decisively, and in a bipartisan way on both the federal and state level, we will help ‘flatten the curve’ of the coronavirus. It is encouraging to see the speed and efficiency with which this outcome was achieved through tandem efforts from the public and private spheres.”
David Adelman, Campus Apartments and Darco Capital CEO; Osagie Imasogie, PIPV Capital senior managing partner; and Todd Strine, Keystone Quality Transport CFO and owner are among the private investors providing start-up capital.