Since the publication of our Annual Report and Accounts last month, the situation relating to COVID-19 has developed significantly and, as a result, I am unable to address our AGM in person this year.
Our primary focus remains the health and well-being of our employees. To best ensure safety and to minimise the risk of virus transmission, we have implemented a series of preventative health measures for our employees around the world, based on country-specific situations and government guidance. This is especially important for our employees whose jobs cannot be done from home. I am pleased to be able to announce that we have not had to make any employee redundant, nor furlough any staff, due to the COVID-19 crisis. I would like to thank all of our employees and partners for their tremendous efforts to support everyone's well-being, as well as the success of the business during this time.
As a global business we are also working hard to support the wider community during this very difficult time. We are leveraging our distribution system across our markets to support the delivery of thousands of vital items such as cleaning and hygiene products, masks and food. We have repurposed a number of our manufacturing facilities to permit the manufacture of sanitisers and personal protective equipment. Following a request from the UK Government, we have also lent some of our analytical machinery to support their COVID-19 testing programme.
Additionally, our US bio-tech subsidiary, Kentucky BioProcessing (KBP) is developing a potential vaccine for COVID-19 which is now in pre-clinical testing. This vaccine project is being carried out on a not-for-profit basis.
Our current ESG priority is responding to the 'whole of society' approach called for by the WHO, as we have outlined above. That said, I would like to highlight the greater focus we have brought to ESG issues generally during 2019.
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