On 20 July, a tornado tore through a Pfizer plant in Rocky Mount, US, destroying part of a large facility that makes sterile injectable drugs. The twister caused extensive damage to warehouses storing critical hospital supplies such as dopamine, potassium acetate and vitamin K1 for babies.
The facility manufactures a quarter of Pfizer’s sterile injectables for US hospitals, comprising around 8% of total US consumption. While production facilities remained largely unscathed, they had to be stopped. ‘In this highly sensitive, sterile environment, when you are losing power, it is not easy to switch on and switch off,’ said Pfizer’s chief executive Albert Bourla. There were therefore immediate concerns from drug purchasers about drug shortages after the tornado hit, although a statement from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said there was some redundancy in the supply chain.
Lots more at url above
