Health officials said that the tornado-caused damage to a Pfizer plant in North Carolina could cause future drug shortages in the United States.
On Wednesday, the Pfizer facility in Rocky Mount appeared to sustain a direct hit from what National Weather Service officials say was an EF-3 tornado, halting operations at the plant. 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.
Pfizer said all employees were safely evacuated and accounted for, and no serious injuries were reported. The drugmaker is still assessing the damage.
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.
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
“If Pfizer falls out, it makes it that much harder for other companies to make up the difference,” Ms. Fox said, although the specifics of which drugs might be involved in a shortage and how long that shortage will go aren’t clear.
“Anyone who is aware of this event is basically holding their collective breath at this point, hoping for the best and waiting for news,” Mr. Ganio said. He noted that drugmakers tend to ship finished products quickly from manufacturing sites, which may limit how much inventory was damaged by the twister.
A temporary shutdown of the North Carolina plant in 2012 led to a shortage of anesthesia and other medicines, said a Healthcare Ready report.
Along with Pfizer, there are only a small number of drugmakers that make sterile injectable drugs because there isn’t a significant market for those products, Mr. Kraus told The Hill.
“We do not have enough manufacturing capacity for these products, particularly sterile injectable drugs, and we don’t have a diversified manufacturing capacity for them,” he said. “The fact that so much of these drugs are coming from one facility is a problem in and of itself” because there is no backup if a plant is shut down for any reason, he added.
The tornado damage comes in the midst of nationwide shortages of other drugs. As of June, there were about 300 active drug shortages in the United States, Ms. Fox said.
Statements
After the tornado hit, Pfizer CEO and Chairman Albert Bourla released a statement saying that the company first attempted to determine if its employees and contractors were safe and accounted for.
“I am very relieved to share that all have been confirmed safe, and no serious injuries were reported. Our colleagues at the site do incredibly important work manufacturing sterile injectable products used by hospitals and health care providers around the world,” Mr. Bourla said. “We already have teams on the ground assessing the damage and supporting our colleagues, and we are working urgently to determine the best way to get back online as quickly as possible, while ensuring the safety of our people.”
Meanwhile, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) confirmed it is monitoring the situation, including possible shortages.
“The FDA is aware of this incident and are grateful that the plant’s employees are unharmed. We are following the situation closely as it evolves and are working with the company to understand the extent of the damage and any potential impact to the nation’s drug supply,” a spokeswoman told news outlets this week.
