Nationwide Drug Shortages Resulting From Tornado Damage to Pfizer Plant?

According to The Epoch Times, the tornado that rocked a Pfizer manufacturing plant in North Carolina could trigger nationwide drug shortages.

The EF-3 tornado hit the Pfizer facility in Rocky Mount on Wednesday and 50,000 pallets of product were reportedly destroyed by the storm.

An Act of God? Pfizer Plant Gets Leveled by Tornado

“The company has said that the plant makes about 25 percent of the firm’s sterile injection medicines that are used in U.S. hospitals,” The Epoch Times reports.

Health officials said that the tornado-caused damage to a Pfizer plant in North Carolina could cause future drug shortages in the US.

The plant makes drugs for anesthesia, medicines that treat infections, and drugs needed for surgeries. https://t.co/qj7EkJ3On8

— The Epoch Times (@EpochTimes) July 21, 2023

From The Epoch Times:

The plant makes drugs for anesthesia, medicines that treat infections, and drugs needed for surgeries. The latter are used in surgeries or intensive care units for patients who are placed on ventilators, said Mike Ganio, who studies drug shortages at the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists.

And hospitals across the U.S. have already seen shortages of sterile injectable drugs in recent months, said Tom Kraus, vice president of government relations at the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists. The tornado damage will make the shortage worse, he said.

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“There are already 300 drugs that were in shortage before today. And many of those were sterile injectable drugs and like the ones manufactured at this facility. So, we are already in a state of crisis with drug shortages and this, obviously, has the potential to contribute to that,” Mr. Kraus told The Hill.

Erin Fox, senior pharmacy director at University of Utah Health, said that the tornado will most likely lead to some long-term shortages while Pfizer shifts production to other locations or rebuilds.

The FDA made contradictory statements, saying it doesn’t anticipate major drug shortages.

The FDA does not anticipate major drug shortages after a tornado damaged Pfizer's North Carolina plant. The tornado primarily affected the storage area, not manufacturing. Pfizer is working to relocate products and replace damaged materials. #health -… https://t.co/Mk6n5JnFu8

— The America One News (@am1_news) July 22, 2023

Pfizer said the tornado damaged the plant’s storage facility and not its medicine production areas, according to The Hill.

“We do not expect there to be any immediate significant impacts on supply given the products are currently at hospitals and in the distribution system,” FDA Commissioner Robert Califf said Friday.

The Hill reports:

Pfizer said Friday that a warehouse for raw materials, packaging supplies and finished medicines awaiting release had endured most of the damage to its 1.4 million square foot plant. An initial inspection by the company found no major damage to its medicine manufacturing areas, and all 3,200 local employees are safe and accounted for.

Pfizer Chairman and CEO Dr. Albert Bourla said staff are rushing products to nearby sites for storage and identifying sources to rapidly replace raw materials lost in the storm. The drug company says it is also exploring alternative manufacturing locations across its U.S. network to fill gaps in production while the North Carolina site remains closed for repairs.

The FDA’s initial analysis identified fewer than 10 drugs for which Pfizer’s North Carolina plant is the sole source for the U.S. market, Califf said.

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The Rocky Mount plant produces anesthesia and many other drugs needed for surgeries but does not make or store Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine or the Comirnaty and Paxlovid treatments. Medications produced at that facility alone account for nearly 8% of all sterile injectables used in U.S. hospitals, Pfizer said on its website.

The FDA said it will complete in the coming days a more extensive evaluation of the products that might be affected and the current domestic supply of those medications. “Many weeks’ worth” of the destroyed drugs should be available in Pfizer’s other warehouses, Califf said.