A Pfizer Inc. plant responsible for making a quarter of the company’s sterile injectables used at US hospitals suffered heavy damage from a tornado in North Carolina, potentially worsening an already deep drug shortage across the nation.
(Bloomberg) — A Pfizer Inc. plant responsible for making a quarter of the company’s sterile injectables used at US hospitals suffered heavy damage from a tornado in North Carolina, potentially worsening an already deep drug shortage across the nation.
All employees at the Rocky Mount facility are safe, Pfizer said in a statement. The drugmaker is assessing the damage to determine the impact on production.
At least 129 sterile injectable drugs are in short supply in the US, including mainstay cancer drugs cisplatin and carboplatin, according to the University of Utah’s drug information service, which tracks shortages. Pfizer’s North Carolina plant makes a variety of medicines including anesthetics and anti-infective drugs, according to Pfizer’s website.
The US Food and Drug Administration said it is evaluating the situation and “will work with the company to understand any potential impact to the nation’s drug supply.”
“This could be a big hit on the drug supply in the US,” said Stephen Schondelmeyer, a professor at the University of Minnesota who studies the pharmaceutical industry. Many sterile injectable drugs are only made by one company, he said. Even if other producers are making the medicines and could ramp up output, that might take weeks or months.
Companies aren’t required to disclose where drugs are manufactured, and the federal government generally doesn’t share the information publicly. When asked, Pfizer and the FDA didn’t provide a list of drugs made at the Rocky Mount plant.
Drug shortages are at their highest levels since 2014, according to the Utah center, with medicines ranging from antibiotics to ADHD drugs to anesthetics being in short supply. A White House task force is considering the issue and Congress has held hearings.
(Company corrects data on percentage of US injectables produced at Rocky Mount plant in second deck and first paragraph and removes sixth paragraph quote referring to percentage.)
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